Vinsanity

I'm a big Nets fan, who is suffering through a disappointing season, and Vince Carter is at the heart of my distress. Coming off an injury plagued playoffs, the veteran has struggled to regain the magic that has made him a fixture on highlight reels for the last 10 years.
However, a recent surge in form has corresponded with a rise in quanity (and quality) of highlights, and this 360 degree jam may be just the tonic to resurrect a fast sinking season.

Fresh Meat - Vampire Weekend

The Record - Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Vampire Weekend - Oxford Camera

From the opening stanza of Mansard Roof, the first track on Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut, you are put on notice. Your ears prick up, and you say to yourself 'what is this, do I like it?'. Before you have time to contemplate that thought, the first verse hits and you're hooked.
It's afrobeat, if afrobeat was sliced up in a meat grinder and served up in a pop sandwich. So far, names like the Strokes, Paul Simon (circa Graceland) and Interpol have all been mentioned when discussing this band. They are all apt descriptions. Oxford Camera starts off like a perfectly pitched Strokes cut, but then the pipe organ drops in. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa bepops on the back of everpresent bongo's, quite a soundscape to discuss the united colours of bennetton and louis vuitton. And this is the music stretches from the musically appealing to the culturally intruiging. Instead of Simon's postulating about third world dilemma's and calling him Al, Vampire Weekend have no qualms about sneaking in reference's to Lil Jon and Peter Gabriel.
You can accuse them for being over-privileged yaley's slumming it in the east village, but that would be missing the point. They paint such a vivid picture of university excess, and against such a colourful palate, that dishing out any vitriol would be pointless. The comeback to all your allegations is the music itself. Just give in, it's not like it's a guilty pleasure.

Vampire Weekend - A-punk Music Video - Watch more free videos

Movie Review - Juno

Ellen Page's performance stood out more than her heavily pregnant belly as the titular character in Juno, the latest from Thank you for smoking director (and son of Ivan) Jason Reitman. Shaped in the mould of indie successes like Napoleon Dynamite and Little Miss Sunshine, Juno stands on it's own two feet, and not just because of pocket dynamo page.

A smart script by Diablo Cody, coupled with great music and inspired casting choices (Jennifer Garner, Michael Cera and JK Simmon's all on point) converge to make Juno the comedy to see this aussie summer. The cup runneth over with metaphor's about the 16 yr old Juno, who gets pregnant to best friend Bleeker, and decides to give her baby up for adoption.

For a bellyfull of laughs (ah the metaphors) and even a smidge of romance, see Juno asap. You'd be a dork not to.

Gone Baby, Gone

After our second loss of the season, I'm wondering what's happened to our skills over the christmas break. I have to be blamed for some of this (especially since I didn't practice after last weeks game), but we have to sort out our team play, because we have none.
score was 33-67 (however, the opposition got a bonus 10points at half time).

I am legend

I'm here, it's 2008 and I've yet to learn a thing.

Monday 7th January - I rolled back into work, and found myself wondering why I had come back so early from holidays (granted, I had been off 3 and a half weeks).
After answering the usual quota of post-holiday emails (300 at last count), I set about the arduous task of catching up on the latest in the Britney-goes-crazy saga.
It was tough, and by lunch I needed my tuna and cheese upgrade. A trip to the mall satisfied my fix, and the afternoon cruised by like Tom and Katie.
I lost basketball, and played pretty miserably. Tim was waiting for me at the party palace when I got back, so the loss was quickly forgotten. He filled me in on his drinking and fishing antics at Venus Bay (they took up 9 litres of bourbon and 9 cartons).
After Tim left I made up some wraps and cleaned up the place ready for the mega-inspection tomorrow morning. Peace out.

Top 100 Tracks of 2007

Pitchfork has named it's yearly top tracks, and there were some surprises, although not so many for ardent Pitchforkian's. Without wanting to spoil the fun, follow the link here.

I know I've probably posted this before, but funny is always justified. So here it is, Ali G taking on the NBA.

Punk'd

It's a mere three weeks away. Daft Punk begins their audio-visual assault on aussie shores in Perth on the 16th of december, and yours truly will be there.
It'll be hard to avoid the Punk till then, what with the tons of youtube concert footage, flickr fan photo's and now album 'Alive 2007'.
I'll try and capture as much media as I can of the event, but I have a feeling I might be better served searching youtube the next day for classier footage.
The album is a killer, and it's tough to avoid listening to it, fearing overexposure might dampen the live experience.
Anyway, I hope y'all got a ticket, cause I don't think this is gonna happen again sometime soon.

BITCH POST

Three fucking weeks without internet, and I'm paying for it. WTF?!
It turns out I had a faulty phone line. Hey, not my problem, it's not my house! The losers take three weeks to sort out their in-house bitching and do something about it.
But, let's calm down and look on the bright side, I am back and I still have my health.
What's that you say? I owe like gazillion SUNDAY MIXTAPES? Well, screw you. I will grant you these jewels though, so enjoy.

Saigon feat. Jay-Z - Come on Baby Remix

Jay-Z - Roc Boys

Radiohead and the boulevard of Download Dreams

In case you've been living under a rock (or in the real world) for the last couple weeks, Radiohead have 'released' their new album 'In Rainbows'. It was released as an internet download only album, and you could pay as much for it as you wanted. Yes, you heard that right, if you wanted to pay 1cent for it, it was yours. It still is. Go here to purchase, but before you do, think about how much you actually want to pay...

You can read the Pitchfork breakdown of the 'In Rainbows' phenomenom here.

Blog Ogling: Kanye West

Kanye West has a blog. And he updates it every day. Now when he 'spazzes out at his shows', you can be the first to shake your head and say 'oh ye, you so stupid'. Some cool vids and pics on there.

Link Here

FRESH MEAT: Jens Lekman

Jens Lekman is a Swedish singer-songwriter whose debut 'Oh, your so silent jens' captured the hearts of indie kids worldwide. His deep Sinatra-like crooning cascaded over swirling samples and 60's bedroom sonic's, whilst his lyrics remembered killer cab-drivers and Warren G's 'Regulate'.
He has now released his new album 'Night falls over Kortadela', and it too is crammed full of orchestral bliss, downtrodden lyrics and his ever present tenor. To freshen up, i've posted some links to inteviews with the man over at Pitchfork.
Here's a musical primer:
The opposite of Hallelujah

Night at the Drive-In Bingo

Black Cab

Purchase the album here: Secretly Canadian Records

Kanye West feat. T-Pain - Good Life

Kanye comes full circle after storming the MTV Europe awards last year like Derek Zoolander and taking the spotlight from the actual winner 'So Me', who directed Justice's 'We are your friends'.
Ever the apologist (he has a lot to apologise for), Kanye enlisted So Me for his latest clip. The resulting rainbow of colour is now here in all its glory.

Kanye West Feat. T-Pain - Good Life

SUNDAY MIXTAPE

Yes, it is fucking Saturday, and this is the Sunday mixtape. If you can get past that, then we can get on with another weekly round-up of kick-ass new tunes. If not, then you probably haven't read this far anyway...

Caribou - She's the one - Caribou was formerly Manitoba, the IDM/Electronica one man band who crafted romatic soundscapes and crooned about picking up phones. He's back with this new single, from the album Andorra, and it's another dreamy, ambient piece of idyllic pop that revolves around that one realisation - she is the one. And so is this.

Kanye West - Everything I am - The album is everywhere, so I shouldn't even need to advertise Kanye's Graduation. Go buy the album, if only to sink 50 Cent's career. This is a piece of minimalist Kanye, and yes, that is possible. uber-producer Jon Brion supplies the keys, DJ Premier does what he does best (scratches), and Kanye muses over that which he's not, because that's what makes him what he is.

Ryan Adams - I taught myself to grow old (LIVE) - Crumble with the lyrics, fold under the weight of the music, redeem yourself now.

Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Kiss Kiss - I've been bangin the new Yeah Yeah's EP Iris for a couple weeks now, and yeah, it rocks. It rocks like if the grand canyon was filled with cement and then jackhammered with the worlds biggest jackhammer. Karen O is a rock star, start listening to her music. Or she will kick your ass.

Common feat. Lily Allen - Drivin me wild

How hard is it to make a kick-ass video? Not very, if you use Common's new single as a template. I break it down dot-point style.

1. Show Common walking down a street in a dinner suit.

2. Put Lily Allen in a Spacesuit with sunglasses on.

3. Have Jeremy Piven wave a finger at all the fake thugs and gold-digga's.

4. Blow up Common's Car at the end.

There you have it, now go knock yourself out.