Nineteen Ninety Never

For the past few months, Adam Gorley has been copy-editing my other blog. Multi-talented man that he is, he also DJs at parties and bars around town.

Here’s a quick play list of his favorite tracks that he put together for us:

Junior Boys, Bits & Pieces

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.

Jay-Z with Ratatat, Sunshine (remix)

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.

Dragonette, Competition (Ocelot Remix)

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.

MIA, Sunshowers

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.

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Tears of a Clown

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).

Stevie Wonder, Higher Ground

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.

Electric Light Orchestra, Last Train to London

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.

Read Gorley’s post about laptop DJing on BlogCampaigning, then hit him up on Twitter. He’s AGorley there.

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.

3 Remix - Britney Spears feat. Scotty Dynamo

Work It - Scotty Dynamo

You can also grab a couple more of his tracks on a post I wrote a few months ago here or hit up Audio Porn Central for a good write up about him. They’ve even got a few more tracks from him.

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.

In the meantime, remember sunshine with the Summer 2009 Mix from (Pretty) Girls and Lasers.

(Pretty) Girls and Lasers - Summer 2009 Part 1

(Pretty) Girls and Lasers - Summer 2009 Part 2

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.”

Dane Jah Ras - A God Appears

You can listen to the rest of the album and read more about it on Dane Jah Ras’ blog.

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.

The Streets - Blinded By The Lights (Nero Remix)

AutoErotique - Gladiator (Steve Aoki and DJ AM Mix)

AutoErotique - Gladiator

Violca (MANSION) - Empire

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.

Woolcovered recently pointed out that Cadence Weapon has released a mix tape under the “pay-what-you-can” model.

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:

Herve & A-Track feat. Cadence Weapon - Roll With the Winners

Cadence Weapon - House Music Medley

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.

Cadence Weapon’s mix tape website

Cadence Weapon on MySpace

Cadence Weapon on iTunes

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.

Tiga - Hot In Here

Tiga - Ballad of Sexor

Tiga - (Far From) Home (Speed of Sexor Reprise)

Tiga - Shoes (Spencer and Hill Remix)

Tiga - Shoes

There’s more Tiga on 199X here for you, and a bunch of Shoes remixes at Ilictronix.

Catch Tiga on iTunes, MySpace and Twitter. Oh, and he also reps Canada with a .ca website.

After reading about him on Tzero I haven’t really stopped listening to Scotty Dynamo. It really doesn’t get much better than white teenagers making club raps about partying and living the good life. Seriously.

Scotty Dynamo - Cars Glamour Fame Money

Scotty Dynamo - Make It Right (Remix)

I had trouble choosing what tracks to post because they’re all gold.

Find the kid on MySpace, Twitter, Flickr and buy his stuff on iTunes.

Do it now, so you can tell your friends you were listenin’ to Scotty Dynamo before he blew up.

I just copped this new K-Os track from Claudio’s new blog. As he says, it is indeed looking for a remix and I’m sure will pop up before the album comes out.

K-Os - Zambony

Anyways, since K-Os is from the T-dot and we’re getting weather in the minus thirties today enjoy this track and the this icy picture of Toronto that I took and be glad you aren’t here.

East of LA has another K-Os track from the new album here.

I was going through photos that I’d been tagged in on Facebook the other day (you know, to de-tag any controversial ones) when I came across this classic one in the album of some guy named Scott Ramsay.

I don’t know who he is because I can’t access his profile, but I’m glad someone tagged me in this photo.

It is from a charity event called Bukavu that was raising money for some sort of African-related cause. The entire event was safari-themed. I was never clear on the exact details, but I knew that my $75 ticket entitled me to open-bar privileges and a swag bag.

It was a good night - Tzero and I drank Amarula until someone puked all over the inside of the bar. (It wasn’t me)

Anyways, check out this remix of a Rockland track by NONEWYORK (you can listen to the original over at The Docking Station)

Rockland - You Can’t Stop Californi Yee (NONEWYORK Remix)

They’ve got some other good tracks on their Myspace - give ‘em a listen.