Category: Music

Another week of goodies:

First up, some new trip-hop from Supreme Beings of Leisure, whose third album, 11i, was released last week. Supreme Beings of Leisure – “This World.”

One of my favorite tracks from Mark Ronson’s Versions— a hilarious Britney cover featuring Triggers and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Note: due to a proliferation of the “n-word” and other language, the album version of this song is most likely NSW, so I’m providing the radio edit, where the nasties are covered with scratch. Mark Ronson – “Toxic (feat. Triggers and ODB – Radio Edit)”

One of my favorite tracks of the New Wave era….and as usual, missing from the bullshit “TOTALLY 80s WEEKEND” radio retro-shows. The Call – “The Walls Came Down.” “I don’t think there are any Russians, and there ain’t no Yanks. Just Corporate Criminals, playing with tanks.”

An iTunes meme thing I did recently reminded me that although I have 177 Queen tracks in my library, I’ve almost never posted any here. Here’s one of my favorites, which of all their hits, doesn’t get nearly enough airplay. Queen – “Now I’m Here.”

Sometimes, a song has such a brilliant hook that it even makes songs that *sample* that hook turn out well. Here’s an example — a 90s one-hit wonder, built around a sample from The Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now?” Soho – “Hippychick.”

My favorite Bjork tune, and one of the best parts of the Tank Girl soundtrack: Bjork – “Army of Me.”

Lastly, a bit of instrumental hip-hop — some dueling turntable work by DJ Nu-Mark and DJ Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5, from the album Power in Numbers: Jurassic 5 – “Acetate Prophets.”

There ya go. Enjoy!

Here we go again….

On the last episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations”, it showed him recording some material with UK trip-hop outfit Morcheeba. The bit featured in the episode was a track where he talks about Michael Caine in Get Carter, but I found out that track hasn’t been released yet. I tracked down the following single, though, which is based on one of Bourdain’s short fiction pieces: Morcheeba (feat. Anthony Bourdain) – “Lisa.”

The bit of music that was used in all of the advertising for the third Jason Bourne film, The Bourne Ultimatum, but did not appear on the soundtrack. An excellent piece by Crystal Method, featuring a now-thankfully-Fred-Durst-less Wes Borland on guitar: Crystal Method – “Weapons of Mass Distortion.”

Thanks to , the wife and I got to see Across The Universe last night. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Most of the Beatles covers were OK (more serving the plot than standing out as musical virtuosity), but I was floored by this rendition of “Let It Be”, which starts acapella, and then brings in a Gospel choir. Amazing: Timothy T. Mitchum, Carol Woods, and choir – “Let It Be.”

One of the songs that I was listening to quite a bit in the mid-80s, that thankfully has not been co-opted by the false-nostalgia merchants desperate to convince middle-of-the-road America that they listened to “I’ll Melt With You” back then…. Dramarama – “Anything, Anything.”

For all the folks who are all squishy and romantic, whether because of yesterday’s Corporately-Mandated Expression of Love Day or otherwise, one of my favorite love songs, and my all-time favorite song by Ani DiFranco. Ani DiFranco – “As Is.”

Keeping it in the love song mode for a bit, some new stuff from producer extraordinaire (and Grammy winner as Producer of the Year) Mark Ronson, who put together this cover a Mary J. Blige tune for a tribute album marking the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio 1: Mark Ronson (feat. Wale) – “You’re All I Need To Get By.”

And lastly, more hipster-spy electronica from NYC-based Ursula1000 (who did “Kinda Kinky” that I posted a long while back, for those that remember)…Ursula1000 – “The Girl from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.”

There ya go! Enjoy.

I noticed that I started doing Friday Music back on Feb. 11th, 2005 — and, given that the 11th is Monday, I guess that makes this the Third Anniversary Edition. Hope you’ve enjoyed it. Should I continue?

This week:

First up — I’m fairly sure I’ve posted this before, but it’s worth it. My favorite track from Crystal Method, from their album Vegas. What I love about this is the layering…how they build the track up, one part at a time — effects, samples, bass, and then finally the beat. It strongly influenced how I produce my own music, because it just sounded right to me. Crystal Method – “High Roller.”

Some new music for you — The Apples. An Israeli group featuring saxophones, trumpet, trombone, drums, bass….and turntables. Amazing stuff. The Apples – “Natri Ba Makom.”

Caught “Pulp Fiction” on TV the other night — it had been a while since I’d seen it. I was reminded of one of my favorite bits of music featured in the film which did not appear on the soundtrack. This song appeared as Mia and Vincent first come into Jackrabbit Slims and are led to their table-car. Ricky Nelson – “Waitin’ In School.”

The 21st century Soul revival rolls on, this time with a track from an Amsterdam-based outfit: Lefties Soul Connection – “Paul Newman.”

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any NYC hip-hop. Here’s another brilliant bit of jazz-infused coolness from Digable Planets, who I really should listen to far more than I do. Digable Planets – “Graffiti.”

The closing theme from Samurai Champloo is one of and my favorite bits of music from the series. J-Pop infused with a jazz-vocal sensibility, complex rhythms and some positively beautiful lyrics (translated from the Japanese: “Spring is announced when the mountain leaves break out in a dance.”). Good stuff: Nujabes/Fat Jon feat. Minmi – “Shiki no Uta.”

Lastly, one of my favorite pieces from the soundtrack to Bladerunner — the fake old-time song written by Vangelis for the film. Now that I’ve got a copy of this, all I need to do now is track down “Girl of My Dreams” from Angel Heart, and my life is complete. :) Vangelis – “One More Kiss, Dear.”

Enjoy.