Hi, no posts for a while I’m afraid as Maxine and I have road-tripped ourselves to the South! We had a lovely stay with my ole pal Jack, his expectant wife Kara and amazing dog Morton (who we miss terribly!) in Durham, NC, and we have now forged on like Sherman to Savannah, GA. Also like Sherman, we have spared Savannah from our path of destruction and are loving how great it is here. It feels surreal and serene, like living in a storybook of some sort…
Posting should resume next week, but in the meantime, here’s a track from Jack’s former band, The Diplomats, that he recorded a while back with Mitch Easter(!) — producer of the first two REM albums! It sounds pretty great…
Also, here’s a picture of a hook-rug of a cat holding a pumpkin that we saw at a market in Raleigh, NC. Both cat and pumpkin are nervous for some reason.
(pic of mixwit.com, the new mixtape site with a great cassette-style interface)
Since I started the blog in February 08 I’ve been thinking a lot about this stuff. I wasn’t really sure what joshgranger.com was going to be when I bought the domain. Then while getting ready to start the blog proper, wordpress (whose software powers this site) had a little exercise before you start blogging where you write down what you plan to do, who the audience is, how often you’ll blog, etc., in an effort to make sure you know what you’re getting into.
My little written bit basically amounted to sharing anything I found online that I thought was cool — music, video, linkage — much like my favorite blogs. I’ve come to think of it as an extension of the mixtape, which is an artform I’ve loved since I was taping off the radio in 1982. In college my mixtaping reached a alltime high level: I was using the media lab to tape things off of VHS videocassettes; I had inherited my dad’s old cassette player that could control the level in (yes! no more loud to soft transitions); I was part of a group of fellow mixtapologists who took it very seriously (report cards were made for each mix, a fanzine was published (I show up on page 13)); I was able to scour the college radio station for b-sides and weird rarities, or record myself doing "long-distance dedications"; ETC.
Post college, I was lucky enough to have a father who loved cutting-edge tech, so I could offer people CD mixes when it was still a novelty. When I decided to try DJ’ing, I did a lot of research before deciding to go with CD decks (more flexibility, don’t have to buy records all the damn time). I could run the decks into my computer and record the mixes, then split them into tracks with other software.
Part of the joy of the mix (both making and receiving) was getting/hearing something that made you say "where did THAT come from?!" And of course, the mixtape merely offered you the track name. There wasn’t really any context, so a really obscure track (I remember putting a Crooked Fingers track on a tape for Dan R before Eric B had even become Crooked Fingers…coup!!) could have an air of mystery about it that really added to the fun, and prompted attempts at one-upmanship.
The same is true of forwarding links to your friends — you just send the youtube link, not usually where you got it from. And this keeps that sense of mystery, that great feeling of "where did they find THAT?!"
1. Does this video bring the dopeness or the freshness? Discuss.
2. On my good days I’m pretty sure I could make something like this. I really could.
3. Do you think these are made up from other vids downloaded from youtube or from hi-rez sources? If you use youtube vids and then re-compress them for youtube, do they look like crap? Is youtube’s new mp4-ness affecting this?
4. Culled from Warren Ellis’s blog. His description: "http://www.eclecticmethod.net. Video mixtapes, video remixes, live video DJ shows and other peculiar experiments that involve beats, images and science." The site is indeed full of great stuff.
At least I think that’s what they’re saying. Once again, culled from Analog Giant who says:
New single from the Brooklyn based R&B group Escort. Muppets, soul, R&B, the Rapture and remix all in one place is a guarenteed joy for me.
I have to agree, especially re Muppets, who seem to show up here on the jjosh a lot. Watching this vid last night Maxine and I were remarking that the Muppets still look so original and fresh. And great.
Yesterday was just stunning here (until early evening) so I threw together a quick Spring mix to listen to as I walked around in the sunny sun sunshine. Then I figured I’d give it to you! Keep in mind, it’s pretty random. The criteria for songs was two:
Other than that I was just scrolling through my itunes, alphabetically by band, starting at Z. Some odd choices, but overall it was a great soundtrack for my day. Enjoy.
What’s interesting is that while there are tons of mashups using Beatles vocals, and tons using Doors vocals, there don’t seem to be that many using Rolling Stones vocals. I think this might be because the Doors and Beatles ones come from re-mastering into 5.1 sound that isolates the vocals, and then savvy remixers can grab the vocal track. Maybe the Rolling Stones haven’t been re-mastered into 5.1?
Anyway, since it happens very rarely, it’s always fun to come across one. I’m guessing that this Soulwax remix of You Can’t Always Get What You Want is officially sanctioned and timed to market the Scorsese Stones film (why Marty, why???). Soulwax make great remixes, and while it’s not quite as transforming as I’d like, it’s still pretty great.
Panda Bear of Animal Collective released a solo album last year that hit the top ten in many many critics’ best of 2007 lists. And the album is kind of great…all Beach Boys gone psychedelic freak-out but still sunshine-y. I especially love the first track, Comfy In Nautica…it’s like a weird gentle industrial-style rhythm with a Brian Wilson sunshine vocal, I love it…
I saw Animal Collective in a tiny DC venue, The Warehouse Next Door…I only went to the show because an old high school friend of mine was in the opening band, Antelope (they’re on Dischord, neat-o). Antelope and Animal Collective — nice, right? Anyway, Antelope were pretty good, but Animal Collective blew the lid off, all yelping and mask-wearing. In the middle of their set my high school pal leans over and says "Pretty fresh, huh?" and it had been ages since I’d heard "fresh" used. Since then I’ve been using it liberally.
Fresh is a great word for this remix of Comfy In Nautica that I came across over at the fantastic blog Analog Giant. The Giant posts liberally, and even the tracks I’m not that into are still interesting. This remix is done by XXXchange of Spank Rock. I’m sure he pronounces his name "triple x change," but I like to imagine him pronouncing it "ex ex ex change." I don’t know much about Spank Rock, except for the Baltimore guys make good! angle. I’ve hung out with some people who went to school with the MC, Naeem, and say that he used to be this total geek, and how amazing it is that now he’s this feted MC.
Anyway, XXXchange’s remix shoots an already great song into the stratosphere…I’m listening to it on repeat!
Last night Chris B and I went to Terminal 5 to see Boredoms (apparently not "the Boredoms", just "Boredoms").
You may not know Boredoms, but perhaps you know that one of their dummers, Yoshimi, is the Yoshimi from the Flaming Lips record "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots."
I tried to see them last July when they did their storied 77 drummers playing for 77 minutes on 7/7/07 at Brooklyn Bridge park (link to youtube clip), but the line was absolutely insane, literally the biggest line I’ve ever been in for anything in my life. If we’re ever walking around in Dumbo I’ll show you, it was crazy, it stretched literally for blocks!!…
So when I saw that they were going to be playing in NYC I snapped up a ticket. It was advertised that they’d be playing "in the round" and that sounded kind of great too. Chris got a ticket as well and we headed out last Sunday night.
It was one of the most amazing concert experiences I have ever had.
Top 5 easily.
Before we go any further, let’s get a sense of what exactly Boredoms sound like. Because saying "japanese noise band" doesn’t really do them justice. Here is a track off their masterpiece Vision Creation Newsun…the tracks on that album don’t have any names, just symbols, so this track’s name is actually a little heart symbol…try to make it at least 11 seconds in so you can get a sense of the drums kicking in…
more pop? well o.k. sure, maybe it’s a little bubblegummy, but this stuff from Robyn is so fun…I know the blog-o-world has been geeking out over Robyn for a while, but I only saw the video for Konichiwa Bitches a month or so ago, and it blew me away with its weird acid-fried scandanavian pop hip hop energy…
and then I caught this video today for With Every Heartbeat while searching for music to use in a mainstream-advertisers type video piece…she’s like some weird version of madonna from an alternate universe!
I was worried that the dolphin stuff below was a little too cute, so thank the internet gods I’ve been rescued by a truly brutal Ernie and Bert music video.
The song is called “A Divine Proclamation for Finishing the Present Existence” and it’s performed by the band Last Days of Humanity. I love how Ernie & Bert still retain their central muppet-ness despite the shift in tone…and the ending is great. Crank it up!
Normally I would hate this kind of sugar-y sweet pop nonsense, but something about de-contextualizing it and putting it in the frame of busking makes it work for me. Big time. Roisin Murphy performing "You Know Me Better" on the streets for BBC2 Culture Show’s Busking Challenge. (There’s another Busking Challenge clip floating around of Frank Black beginning to play in Ireland and the cops shutting it down, but it’s kind of frustrating).
Somehow watching it like this, I love the song. It feels like some really dedicated music-types worked and worked to get this slick sound, and dance moves (does she do the robot at one point?!) and couldn’t get signed so they took it to the streets of London. It’s in such a real world, so far removed from the glitz of music videos or photo shoots. People’s phones ring, there’s some kind of clattering cart that goes by in the beginning (it makes Roisin smile)…I love it. And I know if I heard this song in a bar or a club it would make me feel sick.
What the heck is this going to sound like? It’s a mix done by Dr. Dre from back in 1987:
"Dr Dre mixtape from 1987 (which was exclusively sold at The Roadium Swap Meet) that mixes over 300 bits and pieces of songs into a 60 minute mega mix. With a little assistance from Sir Jinx (who at the time was Ice Cube’s partner in the rap group C.I.A.) Dre delivers a classic. Listening to the mix, "Boyz In Da Hood" had already been recorded so this period represents the beginning of NWA."
Is it Spring where you are?
What’s interesting is that while there are tons of mashups using Beatles vocals, and tons using Doors vocals, there don’t seem to be that many using Rolling Stones vocals. I think this might be because the Doors and Beatles ones come from re-mastering into 5.1 sound that isolates the vocals, and then savvy remixers can grab the vocal track. Maybe the Rolling Stones haven’t been re-mastered into 5.1?
Panda Bear of Animal Collective released a solo album last year that hit the top ten in many many critics’ best of 2007 lists. And the album is kind of great…all Beach Boys gone psychedelic freak-out but still sunshine-y. I especially love the first track, Comfy In Nautica…it’s like a weird gentle industrial-style rhythm with a Brian Wilson sunshine vocal, I love it…
Welllll well well.