Odds and sods for this unique day
Since this day only comes but once every four years, I thought I’d treat all you loyal readers with a collection of stuff that wasn’t important enough to warrant a whole post. Not that I have great quality-control criteria anyway.
Madass New Zealand funky female space rap
A killer break from Jeff Beck (just press play and listen to the first 10 seconds)
HAHAHAH the 80s!!11!!1!!1 “Look how funky he is”
Cypress Hill have gone dubstep. Yeah.
And finally: “Did you ever notice” part four (or three, whatever): In Bounce, Rock. Skate, Roll. by Vaughn Mason, the claps come in half way through a bar. Don’t look it up on YouTube, because the version I’m after isn’t on there (again) but listen to the original 12″ version and it does. I’m telling you!
Speaking of which, *fnarr fnarr* you can catch me handling a large black 12 inch or two at The Antleope, Tooting, London on 10th March where I’ll be rocking the crowds with funk and soul and possibly some other stuff too. Last time was a blast so get yourself down.
Ich bin ein Germanmusikfan
I have the dubious fortune of having spent part of my life living in Germany. As a result I’ve been exposed to a fair bit of German music. This has never made much of an impact in the UK so I’m going to run down some of my favourite German tunes right here and right now.
#1: Die Ärzte – Westerland
This is a song by one of Germany’s best-loved and most famous groups. They just play fun rock with amusing lyrics instead of the cardboard sentiments found in anglophone rock and pop. This song is about ironically yearning for a popular North Sea holiday resort. Honestly.
#2; Wir Sind Helden – Nur ein Wort
This is a proper love song. Anyone who thinks the German language is brutal and ugly should listen to this. I first heard this in a German club and saw my flatmate dancing round like an idiot. It’s a little known fact that Germans cannot actually dance but they employ certain “movement techniques” to make up for this. These include pointing at each other in time to the music, spinning around very fast and jumping up and down very fast.
#3; Peter Fox – Haus am See
This is a kind of chilled out swing number. It sounds awful but it sounds like Michael Bublé could sing over this but he would murder it, whereas Peter Fox growls over it and makes it sexeh!
#4: Geier Sturzflug – Bruttosozialprodukt
This is from the “new German wave” of music in the early 80s. This song is about increasing gross domestic product and working hard.
Part 2 still to come!
Obama sings the blues
The world’s most powerful man got some trouble on his mind, yes he does now. Now them ol’ Republicans they done done him wrong, say they done him wrong.
Next week – David Cameron sings Cleft Palate by Anal C*nt
Prisencolinensinainciusol (What does It Mean?)
This is some mad ass Italian funk that sounds like English but…isn’t? Or it might be?
RChecka – Modern Dylan
I’ve recently had the pleasure of getting to know one R Checka – a long-time DJ and all round niceguy. He also came up with the ingenious “Periodic Table of Hip-Hop Elements” and runs a fantastic hip hop blog connected to it. Just recently he came out with his Modern Dylan mixtape; a high-concept Beck mix. Seeing as he’s got quite a way with words, I’ll let the man himself explain:
Beck has been one of my favorite indefinable artists since 94, my hazy college years. I’ve religiously bought every album and single I could get my hands on since that time. Anything that had his name on it really, his bluesy funky style always struck a chord with me. This is probably the third best of beck mixtape I have created (the first one I made was on cassette tape) and it may not be the last. I call it Modern Dylan, because like Bob, Beck is a story-teller, so in a lot of ways he’s my generation’s Dylan. Coincidentally Beck even toured with Dylan interestingly enough.
I used to be a club DJ for years, and I got very sick of Loser after playing it for countless years. It was at a point, the only Beck song I didn’t like. That was too bad, because it’s a good song, but I was sick of playing it every Saturday night. When I made this mix, I felt obligated to play it, but I knew I could spice it up a little bit without detracting from the original so I decided to remix it. Not to mention that made it easier to mix in the process. I didn’t have any a Capella to work with, so I called the remix what it is, “Rchecks Extended Overlap”. I overlapped on top of the original recording looping the first 2 guitar bars at times. I extended the intro and outro using that guitar loop. Hopefully I did the original justice, nothing worse than a bad remix of a track that people consider a one-hit-wonder song.
All songs on this mixed compilation are from my personal collection of Beck’s original CDs, LPs, EPs, 12”, and 7” recordings. This uploaded mix is the modside (modern). The second side dylside is his slower, more serious country and folk music, not nearly as palatable for a lot of people unfortunately. That side will remain on CD format only for friends and family. However, for serious Beck fans that contact me via email and live within the continental US, I’ll gladly send a hard copy of both discs at no cost. My email can be obtained here. Hope you can dig it. Most importantly, I hope this mix can help you appreciate Beck’s music more.
Direct instant download
http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/dit7nv
Mixcrate page
http://www.mixcrate….ka-Modern-Dylan
Enjoy!
DJ Woody’s Big Phat 90s
Oh, two-time world champion DJ Woody, with these teaser videos you are really spoiling us.
Looks like Woody is gearing up to take his 90s themed AV show on the road. I have to say, I saw DJ Yoda do something similar a couple of years ago at The Green Man Festival and it rocked. Woody is a fair bit slicker on the old ones and twos that Duncan, and I’m sure Yoda wouldn’t mind me saying so (as if he’s ever going to read this) so I’m excited already.
Trailerfication:
Matt Nice – End of 2011 Mix
Bit late on this one but I was rocking this mix over new years and forgot to share. It’s a mix of rock, pop, funk and soul edits mixed with a bit of housey electroey stuff by the king of white boy funk Matt Nice.
Matt is the operator and boss of the maverick blog Edit Records. He’s also recently become a father so spare a thought for him and his lack of sleep as you bop along to this.
You can also catch Matt rocking out at The Phenominal Handclap Band’s gig at Hooga in Chelmsford on 1st March.
The Old Grey Whistle Rip-Off
Spotify is good isn’t it? You can be listening to a track by, say, Todd Rundgren:
And you notice that said track is on a compilation called The Old Grey Whistle Test along with such pumping club bangers as Warren Zevon’s Kid Rock sample fodder Werewolves in London; Dumb and Dumber singalong special Mockingbird and Joe Walsh’s proggy, AOR, reggae-pop-rock THINGIE Life’s Been Good:
I think James Taylor might have been on something in that last video. Anyway, the compilation looked so good that I was almost tempted to do something I have only done twice before – pay for digital music. Unfortunately the download was £8.49 for some lossy files so I’m going to download them for free instead, which is illegal. I hope Amazon’s proud of themselves! I suppose I could always buy the CD for a bargainous £15, or get a used CD from Play for £6.99!
The Beautiful South – Perfect 10
This song popped into my head just now. Felt it deserved an airing. I think if I timed it right I could get away with dropping this into a set. It’s borderline funky, a bit saucy, and it has a chorus you can whistle along to for the mums and dads. Plus Jacqui Abbott is giving a saucy glance in the video – ooooooh missus!
I went through a big Beautiful South phase when I wa sa student. They get a lot of flak as an MOR band in the same boat as the Lighthouse Family or the M People but people who say that have clearly never listened to their music. Having said that all three of those are dead certs for your parent’s 90s CD collection amiright? Their greatest hits collection Solid Bronze is meant to be like the third best-selling album in the UK ever but that could be hearsay. Not the band Hear’Say – I mean bollocks basically.
Phonte – The Good Fight
In my continuing quest for good new rap I’ve found possibly the third or fourth song this year that I like. Phonte teams up with 9th Wonder here. The production is…fine but the rap kicks hard. He’s actually saying something that makes sense. I feel the elephant in the room with rap is that it’s just gibberish, especially “lyricist” battle rapping.
This, however, is a pretty raw slice of everyday struggles that we can relate to.
For some killer, LOL80s stuff check out Phonte’s collab with Zo! called Zo! and Tigallo Love the 80s.
You'll know when you hear it 