Invader getting up

This is a great video featuring the french graffiti artist Space Invader. Several of these spots are near my apartment and I walk by them everyday. I'm always a little amazed at how brazen some of these street artist are about putting up their work, respect. If anyone knows where I can find some of those shoes let me know.

Bada$$

"Fuck litenin and shit". Ahh youthful pointless anger. I really like this song from Joey Bada$$. I can't even hate on the use of $, he's only 17 and that's how kids get down these days.

Random Pix from the Web

Andre The Giant has big hands.

Light 'em up.

The Flaming Lips are cartoons.

Hello?

Stickers.

High Rollin

Old school awesomness

Base lines don't get any better than this one. Fugazi got it done.

Thoughts on Mash ups

Warning - I think every video below is NSFW.
Mash-ups seem to go horribly, horribly wrong a good 90% of the time. It's a statistic (that I made up) I try to keep in mind while trolling the internet for mash-ups because despite the frequent horror shows out there I do enjoy a good mash-up. I've posted about Girl Talk several times and I'm pretty sure I've said before that I don't consider what he does a "mash-up", he is creating music with found sounds. So for this discussion, Girl Talk in all his danceable brilliance is out.
How many times have I thought, "I love Jane's Addiction and M.I.A., this will be an awesome song!" only to be subjected to a poorly synced, roughly mixed piece of crap. There is no set rule to follow when you are looking for mash-ups. Two bands that don't sound anything alike from completely different genres can mash up into something amazing as can two bands from the same genre and time period. A large part of a good mash-up is the masher knowing what he or she is doing. Apparently technologie has made it much to easy for just about anyone to mash-up anything they like and making it sound like they actually hate the mashees.

My biggest problem with most mash-ups, even the good ones, is that they are fun to listen to once or twice but they lose their shine pretty quickly. The whole novelty of hearing Madonna sing on top of a prodigy song is mind blowing the first time but not so much the next. But there are some mash-ups that have held my attention for quite awhile.
Everyone remembers when Danger Mouse mashed the Beatles White Album with Jay-Z's black album. The entire Grey album was pretty amazing. One of the standout tracks Was 99 problems mashed with helter skelter. It seems like just after that a ton of people took a crack at 99 problems and the best by far was DJ Tim G who did a flawless mash of 99 Problems and Jimi Hendrix. I've been listening to it for years, you can check it here.
Another mash-up that I listen to regularly is a Monkees/Iron Maiden mix. Check out the awesome performance video below.

All that having been said, I have been obsessed with Wugazi for the last couple of weeks. Wu-tang Clan and Fugazi mashed-up? Yes please. Check out my favorite track from the album 13 Chambers(yes that is 13 Songs by Fugazi mashed with 36 Chambers), Forensic Shimmy. Added Bonus, the video is made up of old kung fu clips, I think the Wu would approve.

Anyone know of a great Mash-up I should listen to?

That's not right

Mixtape madness

Sometimes I just get in the mood to make a mix tape. I'll usually put something together and put it on my ipod. I used to make mix tapes all the time for a couple of friends from Oklahoma. Lisa(who contributes to the very cool Prairie Hive) was the perfect person to make mixes for, she had really good taste but didn't know a ton of different bands. Andrea was also fun to make mixes for, she had good taste and kept up with new music but she was ten years younger than me and didn't know the bands I grew up with. A couple of weeks ago I took out my notebook and wrote out a playlist for Lisa.
Lisa Mix
1. Beirut - East Harlem
2. Ryan Adams - Chains of Love
3. Destroyer - Downtown
4. Kathryn Calder - Turn a Light On
5. Bright Eyes - Lejune Stars
6. The Decemberists - This is why we fight
7.Gotye - Somebody that I used to know
8. The War on Drugs - Brothers
9. Is Tropical - Lies
10. Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition
11. The Dead Milkmen - Can't Relax
12. M83 - Midnight City
13. Los Adolescentes - Denver
14. Yuck - Get Away
15. Jay Z and Kanye - Niggas in Paris
16. Fucked Up - The Other Shoe

Last week my wife decided to make a playlist for a friend with questionable music taste. Not only questionable but inconsistent in that she likes one song from an artist but doesn't like anything else by that artist. It makes it more than a little challenging to put together a mix.

Cool Video: Iron & Wine Godless Brother

Iron & Wine released another great video from one of my favorite albums of last year.

While watching this video I kept thinking, "This could easily be the kids from the Smashing Pumpkins 1979 video a few years on if they had a wistful Asian and not quite so many assholes in their group."


And for no reason except the song is amazing, Kathyrn Calder.

Top 25

I just checked my itunes and here are the 25 songs I listened to the most in 2011.

1. Generator^Second Floor - Freelance Whales
2. God Made the Automobile - Iron & Wine
3. Belated Promise Ring - Iron & Wine
4. On Melancholy Hill - Gorillaz
5. Tree By the River - Iron & Wine
6. Generator^First Floor - Freelance Whales
7. Kilojoules - Freelance Whales
8. Big Burned Hand - Iron & Wine
9. In Step - GirlTalk
10. Newport News - Pernice Brothers
11. Calgary - Bon Iver
12. Tony the Beat - The Sounds
13. Goshen - Beirut
14. Finish Line - Fanfarlo
15. Bottled in Cork - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
16. Half Moon - Iron & Wine
17. Carolina - Ben Gibbard and Andrew Kenny
18. Port of Call - Beirut
19. Can't Relax - The Dead Milkmen
20. Let it Out - GirlTalk
21. L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. - Noah and the Whale
22. Godbird - Sufjan Stevens
23. The High Road - Broken Bells
24. Superfast Jellyfish - Gorillaz
25. East Harlem - Beirut

Haha

I found this over at The Chive and I've been laughing about it all morning.

Coeur De Pirate

A couple of cool videos for cover songs by Coeur De Pirate and then an original. The covers are pretty awesome because she usually sings in french. I've only listened to her new album once and it sounds pretty good but her last album was great, even if you don't know a word of french.

Cool Site: Minor Thread

I came across this awesome site called Minor Thread last week. The idea behind it is that the blog's author wears a different shirt everyday, he estimates that he can do 500 with no repeats. Most of his shirts are music related and you can glean from some of his statements that he has a long history of promoting shows. Today he is on number 146. He also writes up a little something about the shirt most days. His spelling and grammar are so bad that it must be done on purpose. I'm in love with the site, i managed to read through every post in the last week.

I can relate to the guy to a certain extent. I used to feel compelled to buy a shirt at every show I attended. Over the years the price of shirts has grown. I clearly remember buying a few $10 shirts and once picket up a Robert Randolph shirt for my wife for only $8. For the longest time it seemed like shirts stayed at $20 but now $25 or $30 seems to be the norm. I've been able to break the habit or at least limit it to buying only really kick ass shirts although I still reflexively reach for my wallet when I see a shirt with tour dates on it. The short run tour date shirt is another thing that seems to have fallen by the way side. The tour shirt is one of the big draws of buying a shirt, it screams "I was there and are therefore cooler than you." Now it seems like bands don't want to do the small run anymore. I'm sure it's a lot cheaper to order thousands of a design that you can sell wherever you are instead of ordering a few hundred that are specific to that tour but damn those tour shirts were cool.

Before we moved to Vermont and again when we moved to Paris my wife made me get rid of a lot of my shirts. I ended up cutting the designs off the shirts that were ripped, stained or I just didn't wear anymore for a project. I hope to eventually turn them into a quilt/blanket. We'll see if it ever gets done but each shirt represents a pretty awesome night and hopefully will make a warm blanket.

Wayback: Iron & Wine

I got on an Iron & Wine youtube kick and came across a set of videos from the show I attended in February. Looks like these were shot from the balcony. I was right in front on the floor.

Cool Video: Iron & Wine

Here is a really cool version of God Made the Automobile by one of my favorite bands, Iron & Wine.

Paris street art

There is a pretty cool run down of Parisian graffiti writers over at Complex magazine.

The Show: Ryan Adams

The show exceeded all of my expectations and my expectations were high.

Ryan Adams looked and sounded great. He really seems to have turned a corner and he was funnier and more relaxed that I've ever seen him. I've never been to one of his shows where he joked with the audience so much.

Chris Stills opened the show with a good set. I really enjoyed it especially considering that i'd never heard of him before. In the middle of his set a cat jumped up on stage and slowly walked around for a minute, Stills changed the words to the serious song he was in the middle of to include the cat.

Adams played a great set covering most of his career. I told someone that it was almost like he was touring behind a greatest hits album. It was a solo tour so all of the choices were on the more mellow side, his really rocking numbers didn't surface although he did play Dear Chicago in the style of Kiss's lick It Up.

Here is a rundown of the set list.
1. Sweet Carolina
2. Ashes & Fire
3. Damn Sam
4. Dirty Rain
5. Winding Wheel
6. Sylvia Plath
7. Mr. Bananas(Improv)
8. Invisible Riverside
9. When Will You Come Back Home
10. Everybody Knows
11. Firecracker
12. The End
13. Rescue Blues
14. Please Do Not Let Me Go
15. Why Do They Leave
16. New York, New York
17. Lucky Now
18. Crossed Out Name
19. Two
20. 16 Days
21. Avenues
ENCORE
22. Dear Chicago
23. La Cienega
24. I See Monsters
25. Goodbye Song
26. Come Pick Me Up

See what I mean? he reached all the way back to the Whiskeytown days. He actually made an off hand comment about being too drunk back then to remember the words to all of the Whiskeytown songs. His self deprecating humor continued through the entire show. It was a great night. I hope to catch him on the next tour, maybe he will be playing all rocking numbers.

A quick note on the venue. Le Trianon is a great old theater. It's elaborately ornamented, has two balconies and sounds great. It also has permanent seating. For this type of show it was great but some shows need standing room. Yuksek is playing there soon and it would be interesting to see how the crowd deals with the seating situation.

Bonus fact, Ryan was wearing vision street wear hightops.

Here are a few videos of the show from youtube. Keep in mind that Ryan has a crazy no photo, no recording policy that is strictly enforced(I ran into this when I saw him in Vermont) so these are mostly audio recordings.

Ryan Talking to the crowd and the first few notes of "The End".


The awesome kiss version of "Dear Chicago".


Most of "Come Pick Me Up."

One last story. The first thing I did at the show was visit the merch table. The woman working it looked at me and asked if I was from Oklahoma. I had almost work my OK shirt but knew I hadn't so I was a little taken aback but answered in the affirmative. her next statement was that the owners of the Cain's Ballroom were really shitty to outside merch vendors. It was then that I realized that I had on a sweat jacket with a small Cain's patch on the breast. We chatted for a few minutes, she was Scottish or Irish but her husband was from Edmond. I then bought a t-shirt.

Ron Swanson Awesomness

Not much to say about this because sometimes reality is too awesome. Nick Offerman, the actor behind Ron Swanson is a woodworker. For real. He has a workshop with a website here.

Lucky Now

The new Ryan Adams album, Ashes And Fire, is as great as I had hoped it would be as evidenced by the first official single from the album, Lucky Now. I am also even more excited for the live show after hearing the recent Denver show posted on I Am Fuel. Take a look at that setlist, cuts from his Whiskeytown days, a piano version of New York, closing with Come Pick Me Up, pretty astounding show. I can't wait.

Tips: Garlic

How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.

It's the little secrets that make life so much easier.
via lifehacker

Anticipate: Ryan Adams

I can't wait for the new Ryan Adams record. If the various live versions of tracks from the album floating around on the web are any indication this is going to be another great album. Most of the press reports are comparing it to his Heartbreaker album and the unreleased music that he created during that period and that is a good thing. Most people cite Heartbreaker as their favorite and he garnered a lot of critical praise for that album before really striking a chord with his Gold album. Adams seemed to lose some fans as he got jammy with the Cardinals and rocked out with his Spacewolf side project but I've been into everything he put out. This album was recorded on analog equipment in his new Pax-Am studio and will be released on his Pax-Am label.

I bought my ticket to his Paris show, in November, ten minutes after they went on sale. I don't know how popular he is here but he booked into a mid sized venue, La Trianon. I've seen Adams several times, from the tour for Gold to his stint with the Cardinals and he has never disappointed. I saw him freak out in Dallas, Texas, rock a festival audience in Austin, Texas and play a beautiful set in a quiet, intimate space in Burlington, Vermont and each time I walked away saying "Wow."