wang dang, that's that MIA Slang

So it looks like M.I.A. has just signed on to perform at Sirenfest this year, making the complete lineup the New York Dolls, Elvis Perkins, Cursive, Voxtrot, White Rabbits, We Are Scientists, Matt and Kim, the Black Lips, Dr. Dog, Noisettes, Lavender Diamond, The Detroit Cobras, The Twilight Sad, and Ms. Arulpragasam herself.

I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't excited about seeing M.I.A. live. Especially on a hot summer day at the beach. It bums me out immensely that Coney Island is dying, but with this and Daft Punk, at least I know I'll have two occasions to shake my rump there before it all goes down.

"Boyz" by M.I.A.

This new track is cool. The beat reminds me more of the go! team than it does Arular. Fine by me.

Bird Flu

I'm not really feeling this new M.I.A. track. The beat is disjounted and minimal, and she's definitely switched her flow up. She's gone from her style on Arular to sounding more like a cheerleader; albeit a really indie, exotic cheerleader, but I'm just still not with it. We'll see how I change my tune when the album drops.

I don't have an mp3, but catch the video below.

Mixtape Murdaaa

So I put together a playlist to burn for driving in my car a while back, a mix if you will. I really enjoy listening to it on rainy days, but maybe someone else will like it for a beautiful day like today. Some of these songs have been up on Cigarbox before, but today it's not really about the individual song as much as it's about the set of songs as a whole. Anyways, without any further adieu, I present to you

Cigarbox Guitars Volume 1: El Producto

1. "Imagine" by Dizzee Rascal
Man, I like this song so much more than the John Lennon song of the same name. The production is just beatiful. Absolutely beautiful. The postal service needs to listen to this song and take notes.

2. "Rain Edit Interlude" by Prefuse 73
So maybe this song is why I like listening to this mix so much in the rain. The first time I played the "Surrounded by Silence" album in my house, my dad kept complaining that my record player had to be skipping, it couldn't sound like this on purpose. YOU JUST DON'T GET IT, MAAAAAN.

3. "Once Upon a Time There Was an Ocean" by Paul Simon
One of my firsts posts on Cigarbox was about how awesome the most recent Paul Simon is. I really feel like Paul Simon just doesn't get enough credit anymore for being an awesome musician. The guy has made music that goes in so many different directions, from this album with Brian Eno to his early American Folk sound to the African Folk sound on Graceland. The way he sings, "nothing is different, but everything has changed," at the end of this song is absolutely heartbreaking.

4. "I and I Survive" by Burning Spear
This is one I picked up off of Soul Sides. As guest blogger Joe Schloss explained, this song is a great example of musicians using the absence of sound to create a musical soundscape. Fucking cool song.

5. "Talkin' Bout Hey Love" by De La Soul
This might be my favorite De La Soul song of all time, off of what's definitely my favorite album, De La Soul is Dead. Does this even count as a song, or is it technically a skit? I'm not sure. Either way, the Stevie Wonder melody is just wonderful.

6. "Analyse" by Thom Yorke
Thom's solo effort was a bit of a letdown to me. That's not to say I don't like the songs individually, I do, but as a whole the album just wasn't as captivating as I expected. That being said however, I like the piano on this song a lot.

7. "One For The Head" by M.I.A.
This beat reminds me so much of this little casio keyboard I had when I was younger. I really wish I could find that little keyboard.

8. "Arc of Time" by Bright Eyes
I've said it before and I'll said it again, Conor Oberst is a master beatsmith.

9. "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" by Dntel
Yet another song that the Postal Service should listen to and take some notes on. According to Wikipedia, Ben Gibbard had a weird dream involving Evan Dando and Cat Power (Chan Marshall) and this song was born. It also has a video you can watch here, but I don't think the group had anything to do with the video.

10. "Hollow Bones" by the Wu-Tang Clan
I was in Florida with my family years back and I bought a magazine to read, just because it had the Wu on the cover, raising the Iron Flag. It came with a CD sampler and this was the Wu song they chose to be on it. Ghost's finish to the song makes me wish he rapped like that more often these days.

11. "Mysterons" by Portishead
I love Portishead. The second time I saw the Strokes, they played this whole album before Kings of Leon went on. Once I heard the drum on this song, I basically fell in love with it. I went out and bought the album, I think the next day.

12. "This Room" Remix by the Notwist
For a while, I was only familiar with the Notwist's Neon Golden. I heard some of their older stuff, from when they were more on the thrash side of things and I wasn't really interested, so I never really delved deeper than the one album. Then I heard this song and it definitely has a very different sound from Neon Golden, but I really love it.

13. "Just the Thought" feat. Masta Killa and the Gza by Prefuse 73
Another great one from Surrounded by Silence. The effects used after the gun and sword references are so clutch.

14. "Artificial Intelligence" by Autechre
This is pretty much just simple digital music, but I rock reeeally hard to it when I'm all by myself.

15. "Stand Up Tall" Ghislain Poirier Remix by Dizzee Rascal
When I made this mix the first time, I had the McSleazy remix of this song on it. This version is just so much better though. My life won't be complete until I hear this song while I'm out on the dancefloor. This song makes me shake my moneymaker.

16. "Afterclap" by 13&God
13&God are a Notwist offshoot that I honestly don't know a whole lot about. I do know though, that the spoken parts, "Big Money! Big Prizes!" remind me of Requiem For a Dream and I like that a lot.

17. "Battle" by Wookie
Man, this song is cheesy as hell. It's all about fighting temptation and negativity and shit like that by relying on your faith. I dunno, on paper I should hate this song, but it makes me dance. I like the keyboards a lot, even though they're pretty quiet in the mix.

18. "Milkman" by Aphex Twin
The lyrics to this song are so awesome. This song always reminds me of KMFDM, even though it's not thaaat similar.

Download the Mix

That's That M.I.A. Slang

First of all, I changed the .wav files from yesterday's post to mp3 files. If anyone had trouble downloading them it should be easier now.

So until I start a job somewhere else, I think my posts are gonna degenerate into "what cool record I bought today" and I think I'm going to enjoy it. Yesterday when I was checking out, the owner told me I should check out his $1.99 bin, so today when I went back during lunch, I started flipping through. I saw a Dr. Buzzard's Original "Savannah" Band LP and snatched it up, knowing that M.I.A. and Ghostface had both sampled their song "Sunshower" for their songs "Sunshowers" and "Ghostshowers", respectively. It turned out to be the album with "Sunshower" on it, so I bought it with a handful of spare change. The original version sounds so crazy compared to its successors. The beat remains the same, and a couple cool drum sounds from M.I.A.'s version are plucked right from the original, but the original is incredibly dense with sound. I really enjoyed it and it was cool to listen to, already being familiar with the work it inspired.

"Sunshower" by Dr. Buzzard's Original "Savannah" Band

"Sunshowers" by M.I.A.

"Ghostshowers" by Ghostface Killah

While I was listening to the record, I noticed there's a song called "Cherchez La Femme, Si Se Bon" and sure enough it's the inspiration for "Cher Chez La Ghost". It looks like Ghostface was a pretty big Dr. Buzzard fan.

"Cherchez La Femme" by Dr. Buzzard's Original "Savannah" Band

"Cher Chez La Ghost" by Ghostface Killah

Also, Otis Redding's version of "Respect" is awesome. Just like Otis. Almost always, when I'm writing about a song, I have it playing, just so my writing is a little more on point. I just want everyone to know that as I write this, as I listen to Otis, I am dancing my ass off. At least, as much rock is possible from a sitting, typing, position.

"Respect" by Otis Redding

Sometimes it seems like this blog's title should be adjusted to "Cigar-Box Guitars, starring Ghostface Killah and the Wu Tang Clan". I don't really see a problem here, I'm just saying.