SUNDAY MIXTAPE

Been away in Brisvegas for a week, but I'm back, and the hiatus just means more tracks for you good people.

These first two guys have been fixtures on the UK grime scene for some time now, and although both these tracks show a lot less bluster than earlier tracks from these two, what shows is more experience and more confidence in artculating their opinions. In Kano's case, it's the record industry and those around him that have pushed him in the struggle, and for Dizzee it's a more generalized view of the oppression of authority.
Kano - Layer Cake
Dizzee Rascal - Sirens
The twilight Sad are a new group whose multi-layered sounds iis complemented by ethereal vocals. Guitars upon guitars swirl about, dancing around the vocals and cascading with every chord change.
The Twilight Sad - And she will darken the memory
Next up is Prodigy from Mobb Deep. After Mobb's last G-Unit album "Blood Money', I had pretty much written them off as past their prime gold diggers. However, Prodigy has realised the error of the Mobb's ways, enlisted frequent collaborator Alchemist, and pulled out a mixtape that oozes with the street appeal of the Mobb's late 90's heyday. Pretty much the whole album is this good, and that rate and something to be appreciated.
Prodigy - Mac 10 handle

The Roots: LIVE

Concert Review: Adelaide, Sth Australia, 12/4/2007

The legendary Roots crew, touring on the back of there critically acclaimed album 'game Theory', arrived in town roughly 12 months since they were last here.

It doesn't take long to establish why these guys are regarded as the premier Hip-Hop live band in the world, let alone one of the best bands in the world period.

They plunge straight in to tracks from their current album, including Flase Media, In the Music and Baby. They then set up what would be a recurring happenstance through the night, and this giving each member of the band his time to shine with his own solo. Without going into details, guitarist Kirk Douglas was the best of an amazing group of solo's, just getting over the line with his heavy metal guitar heroic's.

As for the music, it was hard to keep up as the band morphed one song into the next, genre-hopping without even indication between them. At one point they played at least 20 snippets of Hip-Hop songs back-to-back, from Salt n Pepa to Jay-Z to Eric B and Rakim. It was nothing for the crew to bounce from Jazz Scatting to Reggae leanings, then jump into the standard Rockabilly of 'The Seed 2.0' and see the second verse of that song transform into a motown rave-up. There is no genre of music this group can't master (or is willing to try its hand at). Hang on you say, did they play any dance music? Alright, no they didn't, but a funny thing happened on the way home in the car.

I had been listening to their 'Phrenology' album all day, and suddenly after 2 minutes of silence, the bonus track came on. What do you know, The Roots got all techno. Hey, it's not for everybody, but at least they tried and were pretty convincing. Rolling Stone got it right, this band is one of the best live acts in world, and your life IS poorly for not having seen them.

You can have the next best thing by following the link and downloading FULL live sets (which include cameo's that we Aussies just can't get.
The Roots Live Downloads

Sunday Mixtape

Seefeel - Plainsong (stream)
That Summer at home I had become The invisible boy - The Twilight Sad (mp3)
N 2 da music - Brandy feat. Timbalnd (mp3)
The Way I are - Keri Hilson & D.O.E. with Timbaland (mp3)

100 Awesome Music Videos

There's plenty to like about Pitchfork. I especially like rummaging through their features section and finding gems like the post below. They found 100 awesome video clips on youtube and put them together in a page by page post. There's something for everyone here, from Thriller to the slow-mo dogs in Poney Part 1. Click on the Picture above (or click here) and Enjoy!

If it seems like lately we've been slower than usual to answer your e-mails or update in the morning, we might claim it's because we've been revamping our website. But honestly? We've been spending hours enjoying YouTube, falling in love with the music video all over again.So now we're making use of our video-inspired sloth, sharing 100 of our favorite music videos; simply, dozens of clips that, for various reasons (because they're so good, because they're so bad, because they feature the Jacksons imagining themselves as gigantic golden gods sprinkling gold dust on humanity), we enjoy watching and hope you'll enjoy as well.When selecting the following vids we decided to chuck anything from the Director's Label Series-- virtually everything on those collections would be obvious candidates for a list like this-- and stick to clips roughly from the MTV era. Crucially, they also all had to be on YouTube-- we prefer giving you the chance to see a clip to simply talking about one. Best to check these out early and often, then-- it is possible that some record label funcrusher could come around and wrinkle his nose at us pointing you all to a commercial for his company's product.

SUNDAY MIXTAPE

Yes, I know this is late, but I had a serious Veronica Mars jones on Sunday, and it needed attending to. Anyway, here's some tracks that should tide you over.

Mark Ronson - Stop me
Mark Ronson feat. Amy WineHouse - Valerie
Rich Boy - Boy looka here
Fabolous - Diamonds on my damn chain

Disturbia: Interview - Shia Lebouf

Child star Shia lebouf apparently comes of age in the new Hitchcockesque thriller 'Disturbia'. AV Club interviewed him about that and the upcoming 'Transformers' Movie. Follow the link

Shia Lebouf interview from AV Club

Manic Monkeys: Alex Turner drops some science on the inspiration behind 'Brianstorm'

Stereogum reported on the Arctic Monkeys, who decided to offer some clues as to the identity of the Brian of the titular Monkeys single. In typically Turneresque fashion, not much was given away, but it's still entertaining reading.

This week's NME solves a mystery that's bedeviled Arctic Monkeys fans since the oddly-titled "Brianstorm" broke last month: Who the hell is this Brian, and how did he get his own song?

ALEX TURNER: We were playing a gig once and this man walked in the dressing room -- we don't know how he managed to penetrate the thick security, he had a kind of laminate pass, I don't know where he came from. He was very smooth and he made a lasting impression in a short space of time. We all felt very calm when he was speaking to us.

What? That's it? You'd think, given his rep for vivid storytelling, that Alex could come up with something a little more -- vivid. He didn't even mention the "T-shirt and tie combination." Perhaps he's taking the piss? The Monkeys went on, making the story a little better:

AT: And then he left and we weren't sure if we'd all imagined it simultaneously. It could've been a mixture of jet lag or anything like that, there's many theories. We wrote it down and drew a picture of him and, over the coming weeks, I kind of guessed what he'd be like in the lyrics to that tune. He hasn't been in touch yet, but he did leave me his card. I'm a bit scared to look at it. I think if you repeat "Brianstorm" in the mirror he appears behind you."
JAMIE COOK: Like Biggie Smalls! (All laugh).

Brianstorm Video on Youtube

Download Brianstorm MP3

Arctic Monkeys Website

Kavinsky: The Man, The Myth, The Track and the Video

Testarossa AutoDrive - This the spectacular animated video, where Kavinsky crashes his Testarossa, but both he and the car miraculously come back to life, zombie style.

Here is the link to the Mp3 of the track : download MP3

According to the scribes over at Pitchfork, the video is a re-creation of the legend of Kavinsky. They explain...

The first thing to know about Kavinsky: He's a zombie. Legend says he was killed in a car wreck in 1986, speeding through the back roads of France at over 120 mph in a Ferrari Testarossa before veering off the road and being hurtled through the windshield. Though pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, he quietly got up off his stretcher and left, never to be seen or heard from again...until 2006.

GRINDIN'

GRINDHOUSE: Tarantino and Rodriguez throw shit at the fans

The two autuers have done it again. After their previous successes Kill Bill and Sin City, you could have forgiven them for sliding into mainstream obscurity and directing the next Cheaper by the dozen spin-off.

Instead, they've combined their respective love of 70's exploitation cinema and created a virile visual spectacular, and all in three hours. Leave the kids at home, make sure you go to the toilet beforehand, and prepare to have your ass handed to you on a plate by the masters of the genre.

Find out more at Grindhouses Website

Sunday Mixtape

I listen to a lot of crap music during the week, however, some quality manages to find it's way through to my airwaves and it's this little batch of fabulousness that I want to share with you each Sunday. So here's the first edition of the unimaginitively titled 'Sunday Mixtape'.

The Clientele - Bookshop casanova (MP3)

Lil' Wayne - Takin Over (Stream)

Plan B feat. Radiohead - Missing Links MP3)

The Rapture: Whoo! Alright Yeah... Uh Huh (Simian Mobile Disco Remix) (MP3)

Video: Kanye West, Nas, KRS-One & Rakim: "Classic (Nike Remix)

Back in mid-February we brought you the Nike remix to "Classic", about which Pitchfork's own Nate Patrin said:
"...It just about fulfills all the expectations you'd hope: Kanye's snotty charisma fits well into a 40-second cameo, Nas translates his multi-platinum veteran status into a zero population growth philosophy, KRS says the same living-real-hip-hop-culture ish he's been saying for the last ten years but still sounds as integral and timeless to rap as the "Apache" break, and Rakim seals it with a brief but electrifying verse that hints at (and builds up geeked-out anticipation for) an album in '07. Throw it all over a dirty-ass electric-piano-heavy funk beat from the ageless DJ Premier and it all comes together so well it's almost easy to forget it's entry #652 in the East Coastish Bring the Realness Back Anthem sweepstakes."
Like the track, the video also stresses timelessness. It kicks off showing DJ Premier building the song on what looks like an old Akai MPC sampler/drum machine, used to make hundreds of hip-hop tracks in the 80s/90s. Grafitti artists also bomb the track's players onto the side of a building, adding quotes as each rapper spits their verse. Then there's Nas, KRS, and Rakim, who carry themselves with all the self-assurance of the elder statesmen they are. And of course, there's Kanye, who never looks comfortable, except in situations where he should be totally uneasy.

Here's the Video in Real Media and Windows media formats.

Classic RealMedia Video

Classic Windows Media Video