Shame on you, Timbaland

So apparently this is sort of old news, but the Douchipster and I were listening to Crystal Castles the other night, and he played me "Courtship Dating", a tune I hadn't heard before. It sounded remarkably similar to 50 cent's "Ayo Technology", which dropped way back in the summer. I remember when that song came out that I was on a pretty strong anti-curtis kick, but I really enjoyed the synth on it. Well, now I know why.

The rumor that seemed to pop up most was that Timbaland had someone jack a sample from crystal castles through a concert soundboard. Not sure if that sounds 100% credible, but Crystal Castles have been playing this song live for far longer than the 50 cent tune has been on the airwaves. I'm all about sampling, don't get me wrong, but uncredited beat-jacking is something completely different. Shame on you, Mr. Mosley.

Here we see him listening to Beirut Demos, looking for his next hook

"Ayo Technology" feat. Justin Timberlake by 50 Cent (produced by Timbaland)
"Courtship Dating" by Crystal Castles
"Venice" by Beirut

Although I've mentiored Beirut here more than a few times, I haven't discussed that particular song. It's a pretty mellow, electro psychedelic jam.

On a sort of barely related note, I've been listening to "Rock With U" from Janet Jackson's latest album, Discipline, and it's really not bad (everything else I've heard is). My only question is this; why would you release a song called "Rock with U"? Your brother's similarly titled jam may be one of my all time favorite dancing songs, but that doesn't justify re-using the name. That issue aside, the song has a fun arpeggiator melody and well placed vocoder vocals, pretty much everything I look for in electronic music.

"Rock with U" by Janet Jackson

"Rock with You" by Michael Jackson (youtube)

GO. SEE. BEIRUT.

Seriously.

photo from Impose Magazine

The Greatest Place on Earth

MC Abstract Douchipster alerted me the other night to a Ted Leo documentary being shown on Starz about his set at Sirenfest. I couldn't really stand the way the whole thing was shot, so I eventually turned it off, but it did have some awesome performance clips, especially the one that reminded me how fucking awesome "Biomusicology" is. I want to give Ted an award for best song ever on that one. Or maybe a gold star sticker.

"Biomusicology" by Ted Leo and those Rapscallion Pharmacists

Just watching the piece of the doc that I did made me start thinking about Siren fest. The only one I made it to was 2005, and it was a blast. I was pysched about seeing Q and Not U and Spoon, but even if I wasn't, worst case scenario is that it's a day at Coney Island.

"Y Plus White Girl" by Q and Not U

"The Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine" by Spoon

I mean, how can you beat a day at Coney Island? Last year, I didn't go because of the lackluster lineup (scissor sisters, tapes n tapes, and art brut can all suck it), but talking to the Douchipster we decided it's really worth it to go whatever the lineup may be. All that said, I'd still prefer a good lineup to a shitty lineup. You also have to take into account the space limitations at Coney Island. You can't have a band who's going to bring in the obnoxious hoards of people, because you still need room to breathe. So with all that in mind, here's a couple bands I'd put in the top of my fantasy lineup.

!!!

It's gonna be all hot and sweaty out anyway, so why not listen to a band that makes me hot and sweaty everytime I put them on?

"Break In Case of Anything" by !!!

Beirut

So they've had to cancel shows before because of tour exhaustion, that's okay. Coney Island is nice and close to home. Plus I really want to see Beirut live.

"Elephant Gun" by Beirut

Two Gallants

The whole southern piss rock thing vibes well with the heat. So maybe it'll be a very different kind of hot afternoon than they'd have south of the Mason Dixon, but there'll still be tons of fresh lemonade.

"Las Cruces Jail" by Two Gallants

The Features

I just want to see the Features and if I have a chance to see them, then ride a roller coaster, instead of seeing them in some shitty venue, well that would be awesome.

"Contrast" by The Features

Freezepop

There's never a bad time for breezy synth pop, but the summer is certainly a great time.

"Here Comes a Special Boy" by Freezepop

Feist

I saw Feist open up for Bright Eyes, and the lady is quite a performer I'd have to say. I missed the beginning of her set though, so it'd be nice to catch her again.

"Sea Lion Woman" by Feist

I Love You, Jesus Christ...

A good friend of mine is out in Scotland right now and since him and I discuss music on a fairly regular basis. Figuring he would enjoy it, I sent him In the Aeroplane Over the Sea tonight. I've been in a big "listening to albums front to back" phase lately, and this is one of those albums that's really perfect for that. In listening to the album as I sent it, I just started looking around for information on Jeff Mangum, since I hadn't really known too much about him and Neutral Milk Hotel. I came across this article by Kevin Griffis that I really enjoyed, called "Have You Seen Jeff Mangum?". It goes through bits of interviews, band history, personal reflection, lots of good stuff.

"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel
"Ghost" by Neutral Milk Hotel

In turn, he put me on to a track by Beirut that I hadn't heard; an alternate version of "Scenic World" from the Lon Gisland EP. The electronic elements are completely removed and the whole cheery mood of the song is changed into a much more mournful vibe. It's a really great contrast to the other version.

"Scenic World" by Beirut

NYC TV

Although I can't get it at home, I enjoy watching NYC TV when I'm at work. Some of the programming is cool and they always show fun music videos. Tonight I caught TV on the Radio's "Wolf Like Me" and a Making the Video type joint for Beirut's "Scenic World". I'd never seen either video before and the TVOTR one is awesome. The Beirut video, eh. It's an enjoyable video, but if I was gonna rank these two, it'd catch the number 2 spot.

"Wolf Like Me" by TV on the Radio

It's almost as fun as watching Jump Tomorrow.

"Scenic World" by Beirut

Also,

If you haven't already, head here to download the new Talib/Madlib album. It's awesome, I implore you to listen to it.

Let's Play Some Beirut, Brosef!

No, that's not exactly what I meant. I was thinking more along the lines of this little scamp.

The indie wunderkid we see here was born Zach Condon, although he's most recently recorded under the band name, Beirut. The other night I was watching IFC and I caught a short segment with Zach explaining how he wanted this whole album (Beirut's debut Gulag Orkestar) to sound drunk, like a meltdown. Seeing as I like nothing more than drunken meltdowns, I thought to check the album out, and it's nothing short of awesome. There's definitely a Neutral Milk Hotel vibe, but is that ever a bad thing? Besides, the two bands do have the common link of Jeremy Barnes, who pounded skins for both. If you stop focusing on the NMH similarities though, you can hear so many other sounds in this stuff. There's moments where you have an irish thing going on, and there's a big gypsy undercurrent, but then all of sudden there's these little Mariachi bursts, and the whole time it's apparent that this guy loves his Magnetic Fields. As well we all should. I could go on forever about this guy, but you listening to his songs is going to do a hell of a lot more than me rambling about them.

"Postcards from Italy" by Beirut
"Scenic World" by Beirut
"The Canals of our City" by Beirut

Also!
Kerrang! magazine put out a list of the 50 greatest punk albums of all time, and it's complete ass. First of all, they included Bad Brains Rock For Light over their self titled effort, even though a number of the tracks off of Rock for Light are just redone versions of songs on Bad Brains.

"Pay to Cum" by Bad Brains
"Banned in D.C." by Bad Brains

Then there's the fact that not one but TWO(!) Green Day albums made the list and they weren't even Kerplunk! or 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. While Dookie was the first CD I ever owned (my dad bought it for me when I was in the fourth grade), it is not the second greatest punk album of all time. I don't even want to talk about the fact that Nimrod clocked in at number 47, that album shouldn't be on a list of "Every Punk Album Ever" let alone a list of the best ones. Seriously man, "Time of your Life" was on that album. If something was played at more than 500 middle and high school graduations it should be disqualified from a list like this. They even had the gall to rank albums by the Stiff Little Fingers and the Buzzcocks below Dookie. Ridiculous.

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"Alternative Ulster" by the Stiff Little Fingers
"What do I get" by the Buzzcocks
"Suspect Device" by the Stiff Little Fingers
"I Don't Mind" by the Buzzcocks

Then there's the fact that they put Never Mind the Bollocks... at number 1, but arguing that is a losing fight. I feel like I'm Will Ferrell in Zoolander when no one else realizes that Ben Stiller only has one look. Why doesn't anyone in the punk community stand up and admit that the Sex Pistols fucking suck??? God damn they were assembled by a manager with a specific goal of an image, for chrissakes they're the fucking Monkees. Except I like the Monkees better.

"Daydream Believer" by the Monkees

I could go on forever here (Putting not that punk albums on by Nirvana and Sublime when both had output with much stronger punk influence, same goes for Blink 182) but I'm gonna stop before I have a fucking brain aneurysm.

End transmission.