Yeasayer - O.N.E.

Fact: the song wrecks so much, the video could’ve been a Fireplace DVD and I would’ve found something to like about it.

What makes me really love this video is past fashion meeting future technology. It’s done so well here, and the color palette is put together so well. Whenever a video like this is done, I’m always amazed by the futuristic musical instruments, mainly because I think it’s the art direction that really pushes for future technology. My eyes bugged when I saw Daft Punk with Kanye at the Grammy’s (at 2:50ish), and my eyes did the same thing for Yeasayer.

YAY, “FUTURE”.

Tron: Legacy trailer (03/09/10)

I was initially only really excited for this film because Daft Punk is sound tracking it, but now that I know it’s going to be a campy Disney affair, set in the future, with Daft Punk soundtracking? Its only competition (thus far) is Toy Story 3.

Every time I come across this in my iTunes, I laugh. The song, “Grandma’s Gone” is probably the saddest thing Tim Kasher has have ever written, and it’s just this terribly depressing, wretched song. But, every time I see that someone has put it in the genre of “Kick-ass”, it just makes me laugh so hard.

All rap records subject to delay infinitely.

Definitely excited for:

A-trak - Dirty South Dance 2
Daughters - Self-Titled
Daft punk - Tron Legacy ost
David Byrne & Fatboy Slim - Here Lies Love
Drake - Thank Me Later
Eminem - Relapse 2
Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
Jay Electronica - Act II
MGMT - Congratulations

Maybe/Kind of excited for

Arcade Fire - TBA
Azure Ray - TBA
Battles - TBA
Bright Eyes - TBA
Justice - TBA
Raekwon - TBA

This is just list of albums I’m hopeful for, but usually, I tend to be more impressed by things that are completely out of the blue.

What are you excited for?

Jay Electronica - Exhibit C

Lately, this song has been lifting up my spirits. I’ve been trying to reconcile the string of every negative thing that’s happened in the past two years with the silver lining of it all. Recently I have been trying to build up hope, and remain hopeful, about what I’m working on and what’s next. Sometimes it’s not that easy.

When Jay raps about being without “a single slice of pizza” to his name, I can identify with his figurative and literal hunger. He further explains his situation of being down, homeless, fighting, but still, exclaiming his own pride, and confessing to having been spoke to by an angel, and with that, he offers his own silver lining in comparison to his negative past. He reconciles his current life style with what he wants next when his peers pose him with the prose of “You either build or you destroy.”

From there, Jay does both. He builds himself up by destroying the track, paraphrasing his peers by exclaiming “it’s quite amazing that rhyme like how you do and that you shine like you do like you grew up in a shrine in Peru.” Jay sincerely loves hip hop, and loves being honest, and it just feels good to hear it. I’m glad he’s spitting “that ‘he could pass a polygraph.’ that ‘Reverend Run rocking Adidas out on Hollis Ave.’”, because no one else is.

The grimy tales of crime, and the incessant naming of projects, streets, and neighborhoods, all add to authenticity. It’s also important to note that he doesn’t indicate himself in the crime. He acknowledges the fact that these things do happen, and even though he doesn’t participate, it’s a way of life he has seen, a way of life he doesn’t justify, but understands. He knows deep down that these actions are not progressive, and it is his want for progress that defines his reconciliation of the two (progressive lifestyle or the retroactive lifestyle), to further argue the point of progress. The maps and tales of his life strengthen that very argument into his own testament. Exhibit C indeed (Exhibit A being the second, Act I as the first).

He doesn’t consider his following as fans, but as family. His humbleness doesn’t go unnoticed. Finally, there is a rapper that’s being played on Hot 97 that isn’t talking down to us, but is talking with us, literally on Twitter/BBM/AIM.

It’s enlightening enough for me, an athiest, to want to change my Facebook religion to “Jay Elec-Hanukkah”. Well, either that or Team CoCo.

Lil’ Wayne, Eminem & Drake - “Drop The World”/”Forever”

The part I most anticipated of the Grammy’s (Sorry Lady Gaga, Eminem Performed with Elton John last decade, you’ll need a better shock tactic) was overly censored (Thanks, Janet Jackson), DESPITE THE ARTISTS CENSORING THEMSELVES.

So here is as unadulterated as last night’s performance is going to get.

I get the chills when I see each of these men hype the other up.

I can’t wait.

Cursive - The Bitter End

Ben gave me the advice to ride out my job to the “bitter end”. I had been wanting to post this song earlier than that, merely because it’s an amazing song that I don’t think many people have heard (it’s a b-side to Dorothy At Forty). I love the song because I spent my childhood identifying with the song’s subject material, it questioning what happens at the end of the world, because that’s the only part of any religion I ever found interesting. I enjoy the optimistic point of view contrasted with the pessimistic point of view, because it’s so easy to find yourself on either side of the fence, presented in just the way that Tim Kasher has perfected. When Ben said to “ride it out to the bitter end”, it just gave me that much more incentive to share this song. I had it in my head recently because I found myself just wanting to quit the job (not quite to the literal extent of “he stopped eating, kept drinking, stop showing up for work…”, but I’ve detested each five hour shift harassing people for many reasons) but now, I’m just going to hold on until I get fired (too bad they fire people midshift, and it’s only eight dollars an hour in a five hour shift, but, whatever). So, here’s a song about the end of the world, presenting you with a statement of you already feel, or a question about how you think you will feel when it ends.

Shinfo: In my last semester at SAIC, I designed a booklet and 7” packaging for this song, strictly with typographic forms, and i think it turned out well. I TwitPic’d it, left it at school, and never went back to pick it up.

i’m listening to that terrible mountain goats song that everyone listens to when they get hopeless.

This record wrecks so much it should be called a wreckord.

owen pallett - heartland

i will buy this record and you should too.