here's a mix to get your week going in a positive dancey direction. it's some punk rock songs (or at least punk-inspired) mixed with some dance songs. what a crazy idea! they're mixed together dj-style, so play the tracks without a pause between to get the mix effect. it's a wonderful selection of songs. enjoy!

.

funny thing, the internet -- things move so fast! when i woke up this morning, i added a post about quarterbar's remix of the l.a. dream team's "the dream team is in the house" (previously discussed here) to the blog. i did a google search for "l.a. dream team," hoping to find an info page of some sort to link to, and came across dream team member snake puppy's so, i messaged him with a link to the remix, and by the time i got in to work today, snake puppy had left us (with a really sweet dedication to rudy pardee and lisa love, r.i.p.). wow. when i was ten years old, practicing breakdancing to la dream team songs, i sure as hell could never have imagined i'd someday be able to magically talk to one of the rappers over a computer box. insane and wonderful stuff.

related links:
discogs' (some real classics on there)

dream team music for sale on and (i don't see any digital music services that sell dream team's music -- if you see any, please leave a comment here)

-- chris "snake puppy" wilson's video production company

as is being reported sneakmove friend william goggins died yesterday. i worked with bill at wired for several years, and it is no exaggeration to say that he was one of the smartest and friendliest people i've ever met. in my first few weeks on the job, when i was a mere intern, bill was the one person who always made sure to go out of his way to say hi to me. that may not sound like too much of a big deal, but it really made a lasting impression on me. there's not much more to say about this sad news right now, except that bill will be missed by the many, many people who knew him.

normally the eustachian tube is closed, but if it does open it is to equalize pressure between the middle ear and the outer ear. the outer ear maintains the same pressure as the atmosphere, but sometimes, as at altitude, say in la paz, the highest capital in the world, the middle ear and outer maintain differing pressures. things go better with a equalized pressure within the structure of the ear. also, things also go better with rjd2 and blueprint--cleveland, ohio natives, you know, the town that brought you boys your premium 13 y/o spank material, the victoria's secret catalog. i think that rjs beats are big and layered and blueprints storytelling is well-developed, despite the fact that blueprint couldn't write a hook if it meant that the cleveland indians would win their first championship since 1948. but if there ever was a reason to smile, and turn up the earbuds loud enough to make the eustachian tubes bleed, it is:

,

as an added bonus for my tardiness, 2001 late-night release of the orphanage freestyle. the golden age of rapping about science projects and acid-washed denim:

a late night of exploring chicago's hipster bars and drinking beers on apartment stoops leads me to the next day of the pitchfork music festival. doing what i can to get vids and pics but the coronas i'm sucking down make it hard to stay focused.

here's a montage of bands for your viewing fancy: silver jews (headliners from saturday night); jens lekman (with his cutie swedish girl band); bonde de role (dancy radness from brazil and easily my favorite group so far--the last clip has them on stage with css after marina hurt her arm in a crowd surfing accident) and the national, wrapping up a fantastic set.

tonight i'm pumped to see spoon, diplo, and os mutantes.

has a concert dvd produced by the folks coming up. there's also a cd that comes with it. peanut butter wolf put together a mix including some of the songs from the cd. the mix is available . an unreleased diamond d track feat. percee p? i'll take that. various other madlib-related stuff? i will also take that.

tracklist:
Quasimoto - Greenery | from "Further Adventures of Lord Quas"
Guilty Simpson - Clap Your Hands | from "Chrome Children"
Madvillain - Meat Grinder (Madlib Remix) | unreleased
Percee P - Rappers Flee | unreleased
Madlib - Take it Back | from "Chrome Children"
Georgia Anne Muldrow - Melanin | from "Olesi: Fragments of an Earth"
Georgia Anne Muldrow - Because | from "Olesi: Fragments of an Earth"
Jaylib - No $ No Toke (aka Blaze Up) | from "Chrome Children"
Koushik - None in Mind | from "Chrome Children"
Aloe Blacc - Long Time Coming | from "Shine Through"
MED - All I Know | from "Chrome Children"
Roc C - Dont Stop | from "All Questions Answered"
Oh No - Oh Zone | from "Chrome Children"
Quasimoto - Hydrant Game (Jaylib Rmx) | unreleased
Diamond D - An Untitled Percee P Joint | unreleased
Jaylib - The Ruckus | unreleased
Dudley Perkins - That's the Way it's Gonna Be | from "Expressions"

(via, nialler 9.)

update 2: more great pics! owen, the ever-loveable casiotone for the painfully alone; corey, the awesome guy that runs absolutely kosher; and a video of spank rock ripping shit up in the hottest tent of the festival. the walkmen are on stage right now--they sound great.

personal best moment: some guy came up to me and said to his girlfriend "this is that t-shirt i saw on the internet. hey man, you got that online right?"






update: it'll be hard to keep this updated but here's a few pics of the rad city of chicago and the pf fest, including something wonderful--my pal ryan craven from jim yoshii pile up is here!



this weekend i'm in chicago for the . its a work trip but i'll be taking pics and posting updates as quickly as i can. check back frequently to find out more, and say hello if you're going to be here.

one of my favorite indie hip-hop tracks from back when i used to do (1995-1999) is "too complex" by boston's l da head toucha (now better known as ). it came out in 1996 on direct records and was produced by dj shame of the vinyl reanimators. it's a pretty basic production built around a great sample of "loving you, holding you" (which was later used on jay-z's "what the game made me") and a de la soul acappela snippet, but it's simplicity is what makes it so great -- it's a clean, no-frills track that typifies what was great about the boston hip-hop scene of the mid-to-late '90s.

here's a great 60's french pop song by . originally from bulgaria, she became popular in france and eventually came to the u.s. to record in nashville. says she, "appeared at the paris olympia in early 1964, on the same bill as the beatles". awesome!

listen to sylvie vartan "ne t'en vas pas"

the electronic/krautrock bands and shared two members: hans-joachim roedelius and dieter moebius. they both have connections to the band neu! and the ubiquitous brian eno. if you like driving rhythms and subtle melodic shifts (hey, who doesn't?), then you should check these bands out.

listen to:
harmonia "dino" from musik von harmonia. 1974
cluster "caramel" from zuckerzeit. 1974

when i heard they were making a new teenage mutant ninja turtles movie, completely cgi, i groaned--the comics were good, the cartoon was ok, the movie was awful (the videogame was kinda cool though). . dark, sinister, sleek and quick. ok it looks pretty cool now. (thanks, sizod)

also, as referred to in the comments (and thanks to mr. t.m., and jkvr) -- peter cullen, the gravely voiced optimus prime from the original cartoon series, . for cartoon comic nerds, this is HUGE. if you don't know the voice of optimus prime, get on youtube right now and .

"the dream team is in the house" by is one of the early west coast rap singles. it originally came out in 1985. sneakmove's ultrapal, , has remixed this old school number and given it new life. the dream team is rudy pardee and snake puppy. their raps sound a bit like kurtis blow mixed with melle mel. this is a really fun song. they pump up the crowd, kick some verses, and even break it down to the tune of the gilligan's island theme song. listen to original and the remix and see whatcha think.

listen to:
the l.a. dream team "the dream team is in the house (quarterbar remix)"
the l.a. dream team "the dream team is in the house"

is one of my favorite dance music producers. he started off doing mash-ups under the name and went on to write and produce awesome tracks for m.i.a., annie, and many others. in 2003, he released a cool album called in my opinionation, the grandest song of the lot is "finest dreams" featuring the always-awesome it uses samples from songs by the human league and the s.o.s. band and has sort of an '80s chaka khan thing going on.

one of the greatest metal singers of all time (frontman for iron maiden, for those of you who haven't sold your souls to the dark side yet), is also a licensed pilot who has
200 people from the escalating madness in lebanon.

here's an mp3 that seems suiting but also kinda terrible because that shit over there is really serious: run to the hills.

played with fela kuti in the 70s. his song "la la la" is about heartbreak. the la la la's and hey hey heys sound like someone crying out in sadness. somehow, the song is really funky and danceable too. holy gosh i love it.

listen to segun bucknor "la la la"

has released tons of stuff. lots but not all of it is great. i like his approach, though. he presents a wealth of sounds for listener to dig through. it's like he's creating his own set of record crates. listening to him, you really get a sense of his "craft", for lack of a better term. there's a not-for-sale comp. called that has a bunch of the songs he's sampled and another one called that some of his blue note samples. both are worth checking out. i also really liked his track from the .

listen to:
the free design "where do i go? (madlib remix)" from the free design: the now sound redesigned
andrew hill "illusion" from untinted
alain goraguer "le bracelet" from the crates

just 2.7 million for the rights to the entire hammer back catalog? "turn this mutha out," "too legit to quit," "can't touch this" -- someone got a if you ask me.

listen to: turn this mutha out

got a boring business trip to boise idaho? afraid you'll suffocate in the blandness of potatoes and heartland without any good, hard metal to keep you fueled up and raging? then this site needs to go on your bookmark list: . and guess what--boise's got one pretty sweet entry.

our fave recent brooklyn transplant grabbed a quick vid of brazilian girls singing the chorus of the best song ever. "pussy pussy pussy marijuana!"

it's from her phone so we're not talking top shelf quality but the teaser will make you wish you were in nyc for all the free summer concerts they put on every day.

(thanks, audz (, ).)

EDIT: some people were having trouble viewing the vid. just put it on youtube to solve that:

i met this guy from , fever1. really solid breaker. some buddies of mine where i used to work are doing a live action/animation piece with a few of the members. fever1 had been breaking out west for years in seattle before heading out here to brooklyn and linking up with in '97 or '99--something like that. we got talking about seattle hip hop, which, for the most part, relegates to sir-mix-a-lot's bass thumping "my possseeee's on broadwayyy." maybe xavier mcdaniel or shawn kemp tried to make a rap album, blazing crossover grounds for shaq, iverson, or ron "the wild card" artest, but i think not. (side note: when i was 14 i was driving with my dad down broadway and i saw the fattest, ugliest tranny. she easily weighed 130 kilos and was wearing black boots, fishnets, a vinyl mini, and a feather boa. the gut poked out enough that there was no need to even attempt a tuck back, or fanny-pack cover up. i am guessing she wasn't in mix's posse.)

seattle has always seemed to be short on producing widely-released hip hop. west coast freestyle/backpack culture grew in a time when grunge ruled, and the synapse of space between the bay area and seattle seemed to leave the pacific northwest open to much more influence from the east coast. writers, djs, and breakers found their niche up there (thanks pinoys!), as evidence shows in alleyways and clubs, but that seems to be about it. there is an argument to be made that much of the pinoy influence can be attributed to the close ties between the black and filipino cultures through the 50s/60s/70s, but that's for another friday. as far as the music, even the conscious era in the mid 90s would have appealed to the granola factor of seattle, and i am sure that it did/does but i don't hear anyone rapping about rice cakes and holistic living anymore.

so what? nothing really, just some thoughts, and i could be wrong. the is out of seattle, though. you could catch a boom bap gig with some quannum folks, or dead prez if you were in seattle for a little summer vacation (a vacation which i would highly recommend). their music doesn't really shake my tail feather and reminds me of anything from LA in the 90s produced by anyone associated with dilated peoples, but still, they do their thing:

, by the boom bap project

as a side note, thanks cynicole d, because true or not, .

animal planet isn't on my regular bookmarks list but i dig this bit they put together. using tiny wireless cameras, they , complete with multiple angles. the bird is badass, cruising for mice and bunnies and fighting smaller birds.

listen to: Eagles of Death Metal - I Want You Soo Hard (Boy's Bad News)

surface sincerity an 11-minute video collage of obscure film and found footage, edited and composed by the bomarr monk. the video was made a couple years ago but is only now for the first time ever available online. check it out!


Get this video and more at

is a dutch fellow who made fast poppy punk songs in the 80s. singing in french, he had a big hit in europe called "ca plane pour moi". the song was featured in the classic film . i think it's during the part when the griswolds go shopping after having their bags stolen. good stuff.

listen to:
plastic betrand "le petit tortillard"
plastic betrand "ca plane pour moi"

dunno if anyone calls tupac fans tupacheads like jimmy buffet's parrotheads (whatever that means) but this ad-heavy page has tons and tons of , all embedded in their fuzzy youtube glory.

love your fixie? love other people's fixies? love talking about and drawing pictures of them while you're in a boring meeting? the will quell your jonsing for sure.

not a lot of details but justin timberlake says he's already.

I've done way too many drugs. I'm just like everyone else, I get completely plastered. I've done my fair share of drugs and I've been caught with my pants down. I just try and make sure there are no cameras around.

is a band from vancouver, bc. drums, piano, clarinet, accordian, strings, voices. the songs are usually sweet and sad. their 2004 lp, , is nonstop heartbreakers. they had a record come out last year that i'm less familiar with. i'm sure it's also worth checking out.

listen to:
p:ano "working" from the den
p:ano "all of november..." from when it's dark and it's summer

the 1975 troupeau bleu lp by french band has been called "unclassifiable", but it sounds like jazz-rock to me. there's some great songs on it. songs that sound like rza or portishead or large professor samples. let's like some tracks together.

listen to:
cortex "sabbat 3"
cortex "l'enfant samba"

so i have this canadian friend. she lives in toronto. i was asking my canadian friend if on her itunes could buy feist's "open season" (do as you wish, judge me). my canadian friend, a girl named sam, said that she could. see, it was canada only release, at least that is what it said online, so when i would go to apple.ca, it would pull a sneaky redirect for my itunes to apple.com, thereby nullifying my efforts to purchase the cd.

i started thinking about how pist i would be if i had to buy import cds all the time, especially up in canada, since we share the largest unarmed border in the world. so i went onto amazon.ca, online shopping that's the same, but different, since it is canadian and i found out that the 10th anniversary of rap-a-lot records album was an import-only pickup upon its 1996 release. that means in the great white north, you were gonna have to fork out 25 bucks to listen to a bunch of foul-mouthed texan rappers. it would be like buying a d12 album, and why would you want to pay for an album with a bunch of no-name vagrants stealing mic time from eminem? on the rap-a-lot album, why buy an album with a bunch of dudes stealing mic time from scarface and the geto boys? so, the point is that if you are canadian, you never bought it, so here's 5th track jammy:

,

nyt multimedia piece where richard linklater describes the techniques used and challenges encountered . the piece shows notes and sketches used in putting the film together, which look pretty sweet.

so, apparantly david lynch has launched his own line of creepy ringtones and cell phone wallpapers (eraserhead, dumbland, etc). $3.99 a pop. i'm not quite sure what to make of this. although, listening to the audio samples on is definitely quite amusing. i'm sure many people would love to have a ringtone that says "i like to kill deer, i like to kill deer"

, formerly shyheim the rugged child, is/was the youngest wu-tang affiliate. he was 14 when his first album came out. i hadn't heard much about him, so i figured his work wasn't all that great. it was surprising when i heard his 3rd record, , and it was good. he's done some and supposedly did some time in prison.

listen to shyheim "i declare war"

or maybe they'll just be nice to look at.

movie one: a starring raven simone.

movie two: , starring salma hayek and penelope cruz, also with steve zahn. link has embedded video clip.

maybe i should read billboard more because is dated feb 20. also mentions that he'll be producing the upcoming linkin park release.

an old video is floating around of --estimated to be 11 or 12 when filmed--pulling off one of the sickest 7 1/2 minute drum solos you've heard. it'll make you sad you didn't start playing when you were 3 too. he's unreal.

there's a great san francisco band called . breathy vocals, synth, guitar, and drums combine to make darkly beautiful rock songs. i would highly recommend anything they have released. why not listen?

from the new
listen to thee more shallows "freshman remix"

from
listen to the more shallows "ave grave"

america's funnyman stars in what's billed as the first of three commercials for bonnie prince billy's upcoming album on . check the video on . (embedding disabled!)

sneakmove superpal has finished 3 . "follow the leader", which has already been posted here, is kinda latin sounding, "let the rhythm hit em" has a dancey disco sound, and "i know you got soul" is straightahead old school hip-hop. if you want some more, there's also also a series of on his site.

eric b. and rakim "let the rhythm hit 'em (quarterbar remix)"

eric b. and rakim "i know you got soul (quarterbar remix)"

eric b. and rakim "follow the leader (quarterbar remix)"

with syd barrett's passing, it seems like a good time to post one of my favorite jams, "peace piece". it's slow and beautiful. gives me chills. from the late 50's when evans left miles davis' group and went off on his own. solo piano.

listen to bill evans "peace piece"

i love mp3s, but recognize that CDs sound better. it's not feasible to buy every CD you want, though. itunes has it for cheaper and it's easy to get it for free from limewire or a friend. it's logical, even overdue that universal music is going to be with just a cardboard sleeve. that way you get top quality sound and don't have to pay more. they're also gonna do extra super nicely packaged ones that cost more than the normal ones. it seems though that we're inevitably headed toward there being no physical copies of music. fine with me, but we need new file compression or higher capacity hard drives. hard drives that don't break after a few years would be nice too.

legendary co-founder of pink floyd has died at the age of 60 from diabetes-related illness. read the los angeles times article

in memory: syd barrett - "baby lemonade" (peel session)

if you like found art the way i do, this will be interesting to you: a growing collection of .

there's a fun compilation of obscure garage bands from the 60's called garage punk unknowns. fast, lo-fi, 60's rock. so, so much treble. it's a 6 part compilation. and are listed on amazon but are unavailable. might be a possibility.

listen to 006 "like what me worry"
listen to undecyded "make her cry"

more superheros and star wars to start your week.

video one: james earl jones did the voice for darth vader. here's some "outtakes" (via , and thanks bomarr)


video two: i'm the juggernaut bitch--been hearing about this forever and its been viewed over three million times. so pervasive they used the line in the xmen3 movie. cracks me up how the audio makes him sound like he's whining to himself like the dude in office space. (thanks leon ferri and chris wilson)

poor dude's house burned down and he had to to pay his bills.

All 25 robots are made of wire, metal, screws and nails found in rubbish sites, with some able to serve tea, light cigarettes and push rickshaws, the China Daily newspaper said.

perhaps the cigarette lighting robot got jealous of the others...?

(thanks, sizod.)

the hardest part of making this post was picking which precise moment of the new david hasslehoff video to include. jump over to autoblog.com to read their take and watch the embedded vid of "get in my car." its very squirmy.




(big "thanks" to sizod for this one too)

it's a beautiful sunny day in the s.f. bay area. a perfect day to listen to some brazilian lovesongs. is well-known in brazil as lyricist and composer. this live track is from his 1971 lp, grabado en buenos aires, which features maria crueza on vocals. have a wonderful day.

listen to vinicius de moraes "minha namorada"

is a very very very good friend of sneakmove. he's given us an exclusive: his remix of "oh sheila". this lispy r&b tour de force was originally released in 1985. quarbz updates it with casio-sounding synths and bongos. rad.

listen to ready for the world "oh sheila (quarterbar remix)"

Los Angeles duo Captain Ahab has won the "Snakes on a Plane" song contest, in which musicians were asked to submit songs to be featured in the upcoming film. I had the pleasure of performing with Captain Ahab at my good friend wedding party, and they rocked the hell out of the place. Definitely check them out if they come through your area. In the meantime, go listen to their winning song "Snakes on the Brain" over at their

"the l magazine" has a great article about a new movement to - literally - to reclaim the spirit of its roots. hop on the subway and start your own party train!

things that caught my eye today:

• your very own
  
• your very own (only uhhhh $1099)
  
• silver surfer feature film to be ?
  
• incredible hulk sequel ?

if you're in the midwest or on the east coast, you really might want to check one of the shows. it should be great, if you like beautiful songs.

07/19 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
07/20 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
07/21 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
07/22 - Boston, MA - TT The Bear's Place
07/23 - Rochester, NY - Bug Jar
07/24 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland
07/25 - Cincinnati, OH - Southgate House
07/26 - Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck
07/27 - Des Moines, IA - Vaudeville Mews
07/28 - Minneapolis, MN - The Triple Rock
07/29 - Bloomington, IN - Second Story
07/30 - Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Festival

(via, .)

check a wonderful song out:

listen to jens lekman "the oppostie of hallelujah"

i finally got a chance to see perform a few days ago. it was a ridiculously great show. complex fast raps, hilarious on-the-fly vocal effects, simulataneous beat juggling and rapping, even a guitar/kazoo interlude. and don't even get me started on his fresh-ass hairdo. fantastic. here's a somewhat rare edan track. he says, "people talk shit like girls in a bathroom/don't ever try to call me soft in a chatroom".

listen to edan "funky rhyming"

for july fourth, i wanted to post something distinctly american and who could be more american than ? american folk music combined with the industrious drive to innovate. fahey's guitar playing has been highly influential on current musicians. take records' , for example. have a listen and feel good about our blessed country.

listen to john fahey "jesus is a dying bedmaker"

listen to currituck county "requiem for john fahey"

back with another one of those beats. check out this brand spanking new remix of "sweet freedom," versioned up by sneakmove superhomie eriksolo.