Its the beginning of March here in Toronto (actually, its probably the beginning of March in the whole world) and the weather is unseasonably warm. To celebrate, I ate lunch on a patio.
Is this the beginning of summer? I hope so, and to get in the mood I’ve been listening to these smart Beach Boys remixes.
The tag line on the movie poster (via) is “IN THE 31st CENTURY MAN FINALLY CREATED A MACHINE…With Feelings” and its going on my must-watch list.
Speaking of machines with feelings, you can’t go wrong with remixes of Florence + the Machine’s You’ve Got The Love. I wrote about the XX remix of that track a little while ago (damn, I love golden robots), and I was glad to hear Adam Smith’s take on it.
The Secret Galaxies remix comes courtesy of T-dot ballers Borracho, who were kind enough to post it on their Myspace page. Its a little more mellow than some of their other stuff, and I definitely like it.
You can’t go wrong with a little Ellie Goulding, and when the theme of the day seems to be galaxies and robots what better than a space-disco track about getting starry-eyed (I’m just going to assume she’s singing about looking at the stars and dreaming about space). These Monarchy cats have done some other mixes, and I dig that they called this one the Horses Head Nebular remix.
Anyways, if you’re in a galactic mood, give ‘em a listen:
This song is from the Junior Boys’ newest release, Begone Dull Care, which is in my opinion the best thing they’ve done so far (which is saying a lot, because it’s all been great). It’s a very smooth and low-key electro track with a powerful groove. It’s obvious that these guys are terrific producers.
DJs have gotta play Jay-Z, right? Well, this one combines a great Ratatat backing track with Jay-Z’s signature flow. The line between rap and rock is nowhere to be found here.
I came across Dragonette in a UK magazine “Watch Out For…” section, and I was super-happy when I listened to them. It makes me think that there’s hope for pop R&B. Their allmusic page calls them “new wave revivalists” and “bouncy electro-pop”, but that doesn’t give them nearly enough credit. Oh, and I just discovered (after about a year) that they’re Canadian.
This song is a few years old, but I can’t help playing it regularly. It’s got a great rhythm, it’s upbeat, and it fits with a lot of musical styles—it’s a great bridge track. Bonus: I just discovered that the chorus melody is stolen from here.
Well, soul music hardly gets better than this 1967 track, especially from Motown. Can you believe that it wasn’t released as a single for two years after it appeared on an album? That album must have been pretty darn good to have the label not consider “Tears of a Clown” as a single. No surprise it’s so great: the music was written by Stevie Wonder (with Hank Cosby).
Speaking of Stevie Wonder, this is an obvious choice. My friend Derek once told me a story about DJing a party where a lady came up to him when he was playing Stevie and asked, “Can you play something we can dance to?” That person was wrong.
ELO never really tried to hide their pop, did they? And we should be happy about that, because they created some terrific disco-pop songs like this one. Of course, these songs mostly sounded pretty similar to one another, but I think they’re still well above the “throw-away” threshold.
Eventually, I’ll put together a proper DJ mix for 199x, but until I’ve got the time and the gear, this will have to do.
Or at least that’s the way it comes across in this re-work of Britney’s 3 by Toronto’s own Scotty Dynamo. Give it a listen, then catch him where ever you go. He’s ScottyDynamo on Twitter, MySpace and YouTube and he is going to be what you’re telling your friends about when they ask if you’ve listened to any good music lately.
Well, I’m pretty sure that summer is over here in Toronto. Those lazy afternoons of sneaking into the pool area of sweet condos are over, but they’ll be back again next summer.
Do you remember when the Sci-Fi channel used to show anime every Friday night? I do…and I especially remember being super-creeped out by the movie Akira.
I mean, all the posters make it look like it’ll be classic cyberpunk: bad-ass bikes, tough Tokyo gang kids, that sort of thing. Then bizarro anime hell breaks loose and the movie just gets weird.
Anyways, Dane Jah ras is a Canadian poet/freestylist and he has put together a concept album based on Akira. From Dane’s blog:
“Each track features at least one sample from the film. Samples used include Japanese dialogue, the re-done English dialogue and segments from “The Akira Suite” (The film’s score). The mixtape was produced and recorded by myself. The concept, mix and master are from KnowSomething’s DJ D-Mass.”
Like that wicked gun shirt I recently blogged about, I also picked up this Triumvir “Rome Never Fell” shirt at Capsule up in Toronto’s glamorous Yorkville region. Its black and white, and features a statue of Caesar giving the Trudeau-salute. It also fits perfectly.
To celebrate how much I like wearing it, here are some Rome-themed tracks for you.
And while we’re on the topic, let’s reminisce about the time I went as Caesar for Halloween. I was probably inspired slightly by Robert Silverberg’s Roma Eterna, a fictional story of what the world would have looked like if the Roman Empire had never fallen.
Thanks to our T-dot brethren SalaciousSound for the Violca track. They’ve got another one, and some more information on their post about Violca.
I threw Cadence five bucks for the album, and you should too. I saw him perform in ‘08, and he was pretty entertaining. Here are a couple of tracks to get you started:
I picked up that shirt in the above picture at Capsule (69 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto). I don’t think that a single gun is repeated on the entire shirt, but I bet that the part of you that is stoked for the G.I. Joe movie is trying to name every single one of those guns.
Tiga is going to be playing Toronto’s CiRCA nightclub on June 5th, and I’m definitely going to go. Ever since I heard his first album, Sexor, I’ve loved all of the guy’s music.
Wait..that’s not totally true. Half of Sexor actually sucks, and feels a bit like filler. But the tracks on the album that are good are amazing. 3 Weeks, (Far From) Home and You Gonna Want me are definitely some of my favorite songs from any artist. The Ballad of Sexor is also a hilarious track, and it kinda makes me think Sexor was probably a Fitte Prins.
I haven’t heard much of his new album, Ciao!, but like everyone else I’m totally hooked on the first single, Shoes.
