Danny threatened to suspend his friendship with me if I didn’t start writing more posts. So in a frantic scramble, here’s something to say “ca va cool” to.
The Cool Kids are probably the hottest new thing to come out of Chicago. Self-described as “the new Black version of the Beastie Boys,” they’re hip hop for hipsters… hipster-hop you might say. BMX bikes, stunna shades, fruity pebbles, “with a little bit of gold and a pager.” This is the kind of stuff they rap about, spat over a minimalist beat to accentuate their catchy rhyming schemes. They’re not interested in pimpin or slappin hoes. As their name suggests, they’re more interested in just being cool. Trendy without trying. Fresh instead of hard.
Yes, yes, ya’ll. This track is a salute to the freshest era of hip hop with an anthemic chorus from a line in Nas’ “Made You Look”. It’s mostly a rapper’s brag, but instead of showing off how hard or street they are, they school wack emcees on how to be cool. Modern day fly machines. Graduates of Cooley High. They show off just how fresh they are with comparisons to Will Smith and references to the Safety Dance.
These other two songs are from their Collected & Compiled Mixtape. They’ve had one EP out for a while (Totally Flossed Out) and have recently released another (The Bake Sale) just a week ago. They don’t really care for release dates, and said that we can expect their album to drop “When Fish Ride Bicycles” … okay no, they didn’t really say that. They said it would be sometime this year. But that’s what the name of their album was reported to be.
They will also be performing at the Rock The Bells concert, with another of my chi-town favorites, Kid Sister, and not to mention a bunch of other hip hop legends and heavy weights.
Lykke and Ladyhawke are two of my favourites right now so I was ecstatic to come across these lovely remixes. While there have been tons of mixes floating around of both gals’ tunes I found about ZERO that I liked. And then along comes Mr. Falke with his deliciously disco-ish edits. They are fantastic.
This past week I watched the season finale of CSI: NY as well as the movie Collateral (Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx). Both were about shady cab drivers who might just kill you for shits and giggles. So when I stumbled upon the ominous image above, I was naturally quite fearful that the site BlackCabSessions.Com would feature amateur videos of a London-cabby getting his Hannibal Lecter on. After entering the site however, I realized that I’d discovered a sweet sweet gem. No death - pure indie goodness.
The site features videos of a variety of different indie artists performing in the back of “an iconic London-paradigm: the London Black Cab.” The results are “fleeting and beautiful and surprisingly romantic. I’m totally hooked,” says Aaron Dessner of The National. I totally agree with Mr. Dressner.
Here are some of my favorite videos posted so far:
There is nothing I love more than really fantastic bubblegum pop tunes. You know, the kind of songs that you would listen to when cruising in Cali with the top down and your hair blowing in the wind while you apply some tasty Diamond Icing Lip Smackers and giggle with your girlfriends. Well, I don’t know if they even make Diamond Icing anymore — they should though, Lip Smackers was the best part of 7th grade — but either way the soundtrack to my little joy ride fantasy would be Annie’s new song ‘Girlfriend‘. Remember Annie? The Norwegian pop singer who put out what Pitchfork called a ‘perfect pop tune’ back in 2004?! If you don’t, than learn. She is from Bergen, she’s blond and her last album, Anniemal was honestly one of the best things to happen back in 1st year university. Heartbeat was on repeat in my dorm room for the entire year and i never got sick of it because 1) it was perfection and 2) there were SO many good remixes — MSTRKRFT, Mylo, Röyksopp, Alan Braxe et al. — that i could switch it up every now and then. Anyways, her new album ‘Don’t Stop‘ will be released in July. There are already some remixes of ‘Girlfriend’… I like the Get Shakes one best, and Feadz is working on one as well… it should be superb.
ps. pop quiz….. where does the post title come from?! whoever figures this out first gets 10 neon hearts from moi….. and don’t google it… that ruins the fun
Their influences are obvious, and they tend not to hide them. Clearly obsessed with noise upon noise of The Jesus and Mary Chain foremost, and after that the chugging electronic beats of Cabaret Voltaire and Suicide, The Raveonettes (Website | MySpace) don’t really think they’re making any progression in music. They make music true to to their idols, which although it belongs to some rejected music community between 1977 and 1985, still sounds refreshing today.
First, let me apologize. This album didn’t even come out this year, and 5 months is about a dynasty in the internet age. But I’ve got lots of recently released music (and some not released yet) and I keep going back to Lust, Lust, Lust by The Raveonettes. A December 2007 release, nothing is going to stop it from sneaking into my end of year list.
As I’m writing this post, my sister just walks into the room ”It sounds like death!”. I disagree. She’s wrong in the same way as Juno saying that Sonic Youth is “just noise“. But I was the same in grade 9 when I heard Psychocandy and couldn’t really understand the Beach Boys comparisons. I do now. It’s brilliant melody and emotion hidden behind the raw energy of amp gains turned to 11.
The best Raveonettes album yet. Their music videos are crap and youtube sound quality just wouldn’t do, so download these if you like. Headphones is a must.
These fuckin Apple ads are infectious. They haven’t changed up the way they’ve marketed the iPod in like 5 years, yet everytime I see those white headphones on those colorful backgrounds, I know I’m about to see some sweet Indie-kid dance moves set to some song that I haven’t heard yet, that I’m going to love soon. Case and point:
You have no idea how badly I want to be the chick in the fedora.
The song comes courtesy of The Ting Tings, a British electro/indie-pop duo which formed in 2006. They’re about to release their debut LP (We Started Nothing) next week, and so far I’ve heard three tracks which I spend half my days dancing to in my living room.
Here’s some tracks from the LP and one remix that I’m enjoying:
A quick post before I lose reliable internet access. You’ve likely seen RAC’s mixes floating around, and they’ve recently put together a 4-song Nintendo vs. Sega EP pitting Mario and Link’s iconic tunes against Sonic’s. Given my love of good video game music and the ensuing remixes, this is a great find to start the summer. Here’s a sample. It takes the Legend of Zelda Dungeon theme and mashes it together with the Hyrule Field theme and electrofies the crap out of it. Download the EP for free here.
