hype machine's top albums of '07

this is like the 12th best of 2007 link i've posted, i know, but this one seems pretty definitive. hype machine's list of the top albums of 2007 claims to be "cultivated from 648 lists (via our own submission form and largehearted boy's list)". fyi, largehearted boy's list is a list of hundreds of other lists. so the sampling size is huge and filled with people who probably have at least decent taste. that said, not many surprises near the top.

safari renders colors better than firefox

(firefox on the left, safari on the right)
i noticed that my flickr pics looked bland compared to what i was seeing in photoshop, and did some research. turns out that the current firefox only supports the sRGB color space (a common one but not as robust as some of the new developments) safari, on the other hand, is forging ahead with support for a variety of color profiles collectively known as icc. this techno-jargon doesn't mean much to me except that my photos look a lot cooler when viewed on safari instead of firefox. i'm sure they'll catch up very shortly.

read this cnet article for more specifics.

check what your browser is capable of with this test.

video: reggie watts, f-s stack

saw a great comedy show last week during the sf sketchfest. hosted by chris hardwick (from mtv's singled out, which i'm discovering most of my peers are too young to remember??? he's now hosting wired magazine's and pbs' wired science show) and headlined by chris' band hard and phirm, it was a great event highlighted by reggie watt's performance. an imposing figure who stands out like that big dude from harry potter, reggie combines intelligent commentary, off the wall direction changes, a staggering control of his vocal cords and some catchy musical talent.

i dug up a video of him performing my fave song of the night, "fuck shit stack" - check it out.



(thanks, melanie)

a monsieurwilly world

this french blog posts lots of great, obscure hip-hop, disco, and old-school dance stuff. monsieur willy describes his blog pretty well here...

"even it's not clear at time, way back in the days, the disco (dance music) and the rap was very close, produced by the same people and listen by the same people. as a dj, i'm very touched by all that kind of stuffs and the following mutations of each music. so, you can find here some rare groove disco, old school rap, electro, afro,... whatever ..?"

25 best dance remixes from '07

here's yet another 2007 best of list. this is one of my faves, though. ants in my trance has their 25 fave dance remixes of the year in a list of downloadable tracks. hot hot stuff: alan braxe, lindstrom, sorcerer, sebastian, etc.

brazilian songs part 2

i'm still quite serious about the great brazilian music blog loronix. here're some more faves i grabbed over there. you could be doing the same.


"eu sou da pesada" by jorge ben
"carioca 1" by turibio santos
"imagem" by quarteto em cy / tamba trio


"bala com bala" by elis regina
"o mestre sala dos mares" by joao bosco
"vitoria, vitoria" by nonato buzar


"vatapa" by gal gosta
"que tudo va para o inferno" by the pop's
"fim do mundo" by marilia medalha
"papo furado" by airto moreira
"first stone" by eumir deodato

21st century dj'ing

took a fun photo of the dj's setup last saturday night. check out his "rig" -- it's innocently sitting there on the left turntable. did anyone in 1998 envision we'd be able do do something like this? makes you wonder where we'll be in ten years more.

netflix hack

this netflix hack from crunchgear is interesting. basically, you set back what netflix sees as your clock (in a cookie?) and it allows you more time to keep streamed video rentals.

helvetia / duster

one of my favorite bands from the last 10 years was duster. beautiful and wholly original rock. i somehow completely missed the fact that the guys from duster formed new band called helvetia. their second album comes out march 1. it sounds great. (via, said the gramophone.)

check out the great sloppy melodic guitar blasts on this jam...

helvetia "old new bicycle" get the new lp, the acrobats, here.

duster "the breakup suite" from contemporary movement. get it here.
duster "heading for the door" from stratosphere. get it here

ticketmaster gets bigger

i was a little bummed to see that ticketmaster bought ticket reseller ticketsnow. seems like it might be better if they went out of business instead.

'07 won't die

music like dirt has an amazing post of their 150 favorite tracks of 2007. all tracks appear to be downloadable. good song overload. it's mostly songs with beats. busdriver is #1.

meanest man contest, languis, & dublab live in LA this saturday

our excellent buddies meanest man contest are playing a show in los angeles this saturday (01-19-08) with languis. the dublab soundsystem will spin records between sets. triple awesome! details are below!

meanest man contest and languis
live at pehrspace (325 glendale blvd., los angeles, ca 90026)

saturday, january 19, 2008
9PM
$5 donation

music provided by the dublab soundsystem

mp3: languis - "maxie flowers" (from split by meanest man contest and languis)

good ol' wu tang

you may be aware of the new wu tang album that came out late last year. it's fine. pretty good, actually. the one track that i love, though, is an old dusty track that they dug from the vaults and put on the album. it's that irresistible good old sound.

wu tang clan "16th chamber feat. o.d.b."

early electronic music documentary

here's part 1 of a documentary featuring tristram cary, the pioneering british composer who did music for the dr. who tv series. he created one of the first electronic music studios. he says that he couldn't collect royalty payments for his electronic compositions because the performing rights society told him "it wasn't music".

in rainbows cd release hits #1

digital downloads are killing off record sales? radiohead has a strong argument against that, as the cd release of in rainbows hit number one in both the us and the uk this week. as you remember, radiohead put this album out digitally a couple months ago for a "pay as you please" price. proving the concept on the first attempt, don't be surprised to see a large shift in the way other major artists release their works...

zach galifianakis fake interviews michael cera

heelarious. directed by ruben fleischer.



(thanks, djhd)

crate digger death-match

our ultra good friend, bomarr, let us know about this genius competition/art project he worked on. it's called the crate digger death-match and it's described thusly:

the crate digger death-match is an audio experiment wherein 12 different musicians attempt to create an entire album in under 12 hours using only $12 worth of cds, records, vhs tapes, or children’s toys as their instruments.

now it's time to vote for a winner. pick your favorite here.

here's a song from bomarr's entry. bomarr "jack, the story of a cat"

mmc's eriksolo on somuchsilence

somuchsilence is a great blog that covers all kinds of music. it runs a recurring feature called "i used to love h.e.r.," in which musicians and writers talk about their favorite hip-hop records. today's entry was written by sneakmove's best, best, best friend eriksolo (from meanest man contest) and is about redman's classic whut? thee album. check it out!

who got dropped in 2008?

i found a list of artists and bands that got dropped by their major label last year. some real suprisers. no not really. bo bice?! of course he got dropped! but some of these other people i've never even come close to hearing of. stacie orrico? hedley? phase 9? check the list here

tony allen drum video

there a cool video of tony allen, fela kuti's former drummer, playing drums. the man's sense of rhythm is pretty amazing.

fela ransome-kuti and nigeria 70 "ako"


(via, ugly talented.)

google-powered mp3 search

this site called musgle sends a long-winded query to google and returns results for songs in secret open directories. it's kinda hit-or-miss. sometimes you get song snippets or bogus files from weird foreign indexing sites. still, worth checking out.

top 100 12"s of 2007

t a p e has a list of the top 100 dance/electronic 12" singles of last year complete with samples for your listening pleasure. some interesting stuff that i hadn't heard of.

asus eee mini laptop

with all the rumors of an apple mini laptop, seems appropriate to take note of a cool mini laptop that's already out. 4gb solid state hard drive, 7" screen, comes with linux installed, 2 lbs., intel mobile cpu, $350.

mark ronson on all songs considered

super producer mark ronson (amy winehouse, etc.) has an interview up on npr. worth checking out.

meanest man contest's "the tenderloin" released today by rcrd lbl

rad cover art by phil toselli

the second song from meanest man contest's "partially smart" ep was released today by rcrd lbl. the track is called "the tenderloin" and you can download it here here here here here here.

while we're at it, why don't we also listen to a meanest man contest track from last year? here's "one more song," from mmc's split cd collaboration with languis. woo hoo!

meanest man contest - "one more song"