Vol. 2, the indie rock mixtape challenge

This is a message for the indie rock kids. Go check the short version if you're pressed for time, or if you hate jokes, or if you didn't care all that much for High Fidelity.

As Mr. T would say, any fool can make a mixtape. I can give you a few examples: I personally have seen trained seals put together decent stuff. I heard about a monkey hitting tracks at random on a laptop for an infinite amount of time with an infinite number of mp3s once creating a complete mixtape. A reasonably intelligent dog probably wouldn't do half bad. Hell, I bet even a Neanderthal who was slightly ahead of his time could do something not so terrible. That's all well and good if mediocrity gets you going, but that's not what I'm striving for. I'm a perfectionist. How 'bout a little eardrum-blowing bliss, hmm? How 'bout a mixtape that brings lots of people to my front door, trying to get into my house for merrymaking at my place. Yeah. I'll have a couple helpings of that. At least, that was how I looked at this before starting some research in preparation. There is an entire world out there that I was unaware of; I'm now trying to understand and incorporate some new ideas. I first found there exists a surprisingly lengthy wikipedia article about mixtapes, touching on history, legal issues and culture (I particularly liked the section about aesthetics... and yes... I did read the entire thing... kind of a dork that way). Going deeper, I decided I would watch High Fidelity, which expands greatly on the aesthetics aspect. Jack Black and John Cusack imbue me with a new level of energy and enthusiasm. I feel I am ready to accomplish something magical...

And so, that is why I am today issuing for myself the Indie Rock Mixtape Challenge! Here's how this party works:
1. Blab for a little bit about what you dig, in terms of genres (or sub-genres), moods, tempos, instruments, artists, actions to accompany listening, etc. If you've got no clue where to begin, you might cheat a little.
2. Armed with my trusty library of indie rock songs and a few handy last.fm tags, I create your custom mixtape of choice.
3. Listen to mixtape. Have eargasm. Rinse, repeat as necessary.

As there are now just four weeks left until the sure-to-be-awesome mixtape party, I figure it's time to get crackin'. That could be either a lot of time, or a little, depending on how demanding and complicated I decide to be. Or how distracted I get by other music, or shiny things I find on the ground, or hard drive death and its subsequent loss of data, or interesting stuff on the interwebs... Also! Still waiting on Perry, o' fearless leader, to put out the guidelines for this.

Participation, of course, is optional. If you elect not to play the game but still want a little something something I can make you a mixtape that's a bit more random and follows whatever whimsy floats through my head at the time.

PS: So entertained by the things that can be found on wiki. :-)

Wavin' bye to the train or bus

Share the Road - Buses and Bicycles from Chicago Bicycle Program on Vimeo.

Woo, safety first! For me this is mostly common sense ish after nine years of transportational cycling, but still it's handy to know and nice to see. I wish Chicago would come down and visit sometime. More seriously, I wish more people in autos had the presence of mind to be aware so two-wheeled folks like me don't get runned over. Somehow that nearly happened twice (!) on my commute this morning. Baffling! It's only two miles. Takes me a whole eight minutes. And today I only used one street. And a smaller one, at that. Le sigh. As if dealing with cold snaps wasn't enough. Good thing I ride defensively.

Don't get hit by the bus mix:
DJ Trackstar - The Playboys - Bumpin Bus Stop
Frankie Smith - Double Dutch Bus
Bus People Express - Augusta Georgia
Rjd2 - Bus Stop Bitties
Beastie Boys - Mark on the Bus

Hmm... surprisingly funky.

Together we... will forever be... high fidelity, definitely, switching the melody

Just got through watching High Fidelity. This is where I was going to jabber on for a bit about mixtapes, as the whole reason I decided to watch it is I'll be participating in an impending mixtape swap. Wanted to be fully prepared this time 'round. But hell, how can a fella even remember what he was going to say? My mind is blown after watching this thing. This movie has so much that I want, so much that I need, so much that I want to be. Sure, it's nice that it's got John Cusack, still lookin' all fresh. And yeah, it's nice when a flick has a feel-good ending. That's not what gets to me, though. As someone who likes to think of himself as an appreciator of and whose world revolves around music, the depth of knowledge, the breadth of selections and the passion bamboozles my brain. Somebody get me Nick Hornby's address so I can mail him a thank you and a giant gold star for writing the book. This one has earned a place near and dear in my heart. Now excuse me while I go watch it a dozen more times. But before I go I'd like to pose a question to the universe (or anyone out there who reads this thing):

What are your all time top five favorite movies about music?

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Now playing: Jurassic 5 - High Fidelity
via FoxyTunes

You can't imagine how much fun we're having

Finding some entertaining things on the ol' interwebs this week. Which is good, considering some of the not-so-pleasant things that have also been out there lately. News coverage on Haiti and ill-advised Supreme Court decisions is gettin' me down.

The creatures in my head... Disturbing, but it's like a car wreck. I am compelled to keep looking. And it's worth it. Some of these are burst out laughing funny. I wonder what it's like in his mind, but I'm a little scared of what's in there. What does it say about me that I am so intrigued?
See Mike Draw... Apparently discontinued, but still amusing. In particular I like I is made a cartoon, as I am a lolcataholic. Hello, my name is Marcus... it's been a few months since my last cheezburger, but the temptation is always there...
Apokalips... This one's an oldie but a goodie. You had me hooked at the brilliant zombie ploy. It can't go wrong!*

*Don't be naïve, of course it will go wrong.

Lying alone in the hospital

Bleh. Don't much care for hospital visits. They kinda creep me out, to be perfectly honest. Could be it's the smell. Or maybe it's the doctors. Or it's the sickness and pain and death, perhaps. And let's not forget about the bills. Whatever the case, I highly suggest avoidance of frostbite, as recovery is not nearly as much fun as we've been led to believe. Don't ask. In fact, I don't know why I'd even bother to create a mix for this. Not for the happy memories, that's for sure. I think it's because I listened to the original version of this Metric song today, for the first time. You ever hear a song that you know but don't know how you know, cause you don't know it? I feel like the universe is out to get me. Freaked me out something fierce, that's for sure. When I sat down and actually listened to this, though, that made everything better. Music takes me to a happy place. Gotta love that Candi Staton, and it's been too long since I listed to anything from Miseducation.

A playlist in two parts...
1:
Friendly Fires - In the Hospital
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Faunts - It Hurts Me All the Time
Metric - Monster Hospital (acoustic)
Bad Fathers - Hurting
Candi Staton - Too Hurt To Cry
Lauryn Hill - When It Hurts So Bad
Gentleman Auction House - A Hospital of Heaven
2:
Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better
N*E*R*D - Things Are Getting Better
David Bowie - A Better Future (Air remix)
Gnarls Barkley - A Little Better
John Legend - Each Day Gets Better

To hell with the princess, I'd rather mess with Metroid

Holy interweb phenom. A while back a friend clued me in on the literal music video craze that's been sweeping through youtube. Some of them are pretty much terrible, but there are a few that are nothing short of amazing. Who knew so many people still appreciated good old classic rock? Now that's love. I think my favorite, though, has to be this one. Amusing lyrics, good vocals that sound decently close to the original, and oh yes I totally dig this song. How can you not like Men Without Hats? For the other, it's getting all dramatic in the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario might have to slap a ho. Enjoy.





Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance
Sage Francis - Mario Bros Freestyle
Remix Artist Collective (RAC) - Super Mario Bros (RAC mix)

Mix o' mixes

As promised, here comes the Mix o' Mixtapes. Only this is gonna be a hard one. I'm all out of the mood and forgot most of the tracks I had been thinking about. Also, simultaneously listening / crafting / filtering stuff for various other mixes (as opposed to my usual method of focusing on one thing) does not make this simpler. And I really wanted to watch High Fidelity before I started this. It's a movie about mixtapes! Or mixtape culture, or something. Who cares. It's got John Cusack! He sure is dreamy. All who disagree should go watch Better Off Dead before they try and tell me different. Anyway, I'd given myself the impression that I'd seen it and thus all I needed to do was refresh my memory, but apparently I was thinking of Empire Records. Go figure. I did at least read the wiki article about mixtapes. There is WAY more going on than I ever knew. Crazy.

LL Cool J - I Can't Live Without My Radio
...cause you need your radio to play your mixtapes, duh. Let's hear it for the boomin system.
Midnight Juggernauts - This New Technology
...oh, the irony. This ain't yo momma's mixtape. CDs are the future. Er... were the future. I have a remix of this one by Memory Tapes, but while the double whammy would have been awesomely sweet I have to go for the superior version.
The Kills - Tape Song
Wyclef Jean - The Mix Show
N*E*R*D - Tape You
...hey wait, I think he's talking about a different kind of tape...

Before I can actually listen to this I've got loads of indie rock, electro, soul and Russian hip-hop (o.O?) to make my way through. Not used to this makin mixes blind thing, but sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day. Guess what? I am not a robot. Reserving the right to come back and edit this later. Most likely I will, in fact, until I'm happier with this.

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Now playing: Marina & the Diamonds - I Am Not A Robot (acoustic)
via FoxyTunes

Guns, Cars and Sitars

One day I'm gonna buy a big tv. And then across from it, I'm gonna put another big tv. And I'm gonna play these videos on each of them all day long. Won't need to watch any other car chase scenes for a good lil bit.





I promised myself that the next mix I'd try and do my would be about mixtapes (got to catch up to / outdo someone... a mix about Bea Arthur's death? Whuaah??), but this just had to be done. And it was laughable easy.

Do It For The Love... Of Destruction! mix
100dBs - The Chase
Moving Units - Crash 'n' Burn Victims (Felix Cartal remix)
Now, Now Every Children - Cars
Audioslave - Getaway Car (sometimes you just gotta go where the mix takes you)
Animate Objects - Riding (In Fast Cars With Your Momma)
DJ Shadow - Mashin' on the Motorway
Target Market - Killer Cars
Queen - I'm in Love With My Car
Dan the Automator - Theme From Don [feat. DJ Shadow]

New Music Mhursday

A-whoops. Maybe if I was better at posting on a regular basis, I could do a weekly thing about what I've been diggin (or not). And it'd be all alliterative and awesome. Think about how nice that would be! But I'm just me, sooo... Mhursday it is. I'm sure it's fine, because in the words of

Florence + The Machine: I have no idea where this one came from, but girl's got a big ol' voice. It's surprising to hear that much power coming from a vocalist these days, but especially so from one so young. And who knew white British people had soul? First Amy (she may be a hot mess in her private life, but she's got pipes and you know it), then Duffy, now Flo. Been listening to her take on quite a few covers and it puts quite the interesting spin on things. A lot of those have been of the rock and indie variety, but you can tell she's into history as well. Mad respect for anyone who's into Candi Staton. I just can't. Get. Enough. Wanna hear more, know more, and maybe marry her.

Florence + The Machine - You've Got the Love (Candi Staton cover)

Eternia: This one caught my attention from Bob knows where on the interwebs. It's terribly hard to find good female emcees these days, people that have a sound that says style, a sound that says class, a sound that says this is hip-hop. And if that's what you're looking for, don't stop, cause you won't find it here. I'll give her that she's got something going for her, and I'll likely give her at least a second listen before I put her away and forget about her, but after hearing what she has to say on Get Caught Up I can't say I'm all that impressed. Certainly I can't understand why anyone would go so far as to claim Eternia is "the best female rapper alive"*, as I saw someone comment on last.fm. That's the kind of bold statement that, I feel, deserves a bit of inspection. There are a lot of subjective and hard to measure variables that could qualify one as being among the best emcees alive. To list a few: 1. A firm grasp of the four elements (if you don't know what those are, go back to hip-hop kindergarten). For that, the first that controversially comes to mind would be Fergie; I know, I know she quite possibly ruined the Black Eyed Peas, and she really went off the rails with that solo shit she pulled, but for a while there BEP was one of the rare contemporary hip-hop groups that incorporated break dancing. For that, they will always have my respect. Even if it's locked away in a time capsule from the days of their first two albums. 2. The ability to tell a compelling story that draws in the listener. When it comes to this, I have to say it's hard to be better than Brother Ali, Aesop Rock, Immortal Technique (though he will get a little too into it for my tastes), or Slug (more for the early- to mid-2000s; wasn't so much diggin on that When Life Gives You Lemons...). All of them make me feel like a little kid listening to a bedtime story that I don't want to end. The skill to lay absolutely dope verses over some fresh beats. Jean Grae, Psalm One or Lauren Hill (back when she used to be about hip-hop, before she went all crazy and came out with Unplugged) can all do this in a way that'll get the crowd jumpin. I do have to give Eternia at least some credit on this aspect; her flows and beats do not suck. But on my first listen, it didn't sound like she was talking about anything. Nor did it seem she was bringing an energy that I could connect to, and the beats started to sound a little repetitive and mechanical. Give me something original and laced with fire. Maybe I'm being a little hard on the girl, but I'm particular about my hip-hop. After all, someone's gotta stand up and make sure the world isn't overrun by a bunch of crap rappers.

Eternia - Foul Child

*Technically, she said "raper", but we'll go ahead and let that potentially tragic typo slide.

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Now playing: Black Eyed Peas - They Don't Want Music [feat. James Brown]
via FoxyTunes