I know what you’re thinking. This is some bubblegum, radio-friendly, autotune bullshit. Can’t really argue with you there. But fuck, this is catchy. “Your Love” wasn’t really doing it for me, but if Nicki is trying to make looping up ’80s shit a trademark, “Video Killed the Radio Star” is a good place to start. For the record, will.i.am is a genius. Yeah, his songs are generally about nothing. Yes, you can usually fit the lyrics to an entire Black Eyed Peas song on a small napkin. And yes, his songs are ubiquitous to the point that they make you want to burn down your local radio station. But it’s hardly his fault. The dude knows pop. And pop makes people happy. Don’t be surprised if you end up hearing this more times than you wanted to.
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This song is a movement in itself already. I swear I’ve seen like thirty folks throw it up on Facebook in ten days or so it’s been out. It’s funny though. When songs like this drop, I tend to feel like it’s poetic justice. Cee-Lo is one of those cats that’s written a few dozen amazing songs, and only a few of them ever really get that mainstream ubiquity (“Crazy” being the most obvious example). It’s good though. Max said last night that he’s juiced to see what Mr. Green does next, and I think that’s the mark of a great artist. So here go the visuals for the most viral song on the internet right now. If you don’t crack a smile watching this, you might want to look into these.
First off, I gotta thank Alan for putting me up on The Hood Internet. I was snoozing pretty hard, but luckily Alan had folks juiced off the Drizzy/Miike Snow mashup this weekend, so I got my first proper introduction. Also known as DJs Aaron Brink and Steve Reidell, The Hood Internet specializes in the art of the mashup, creating improbable blends between radio-friendly hip-hop and indie pop or electro. Think good times like Girl Talk, but without having to hear Journey and Fergie in the process. “Trey-dio” (Trey’s “Say Aah” + and Radio Dept.’s “Heaven’s On Fire”) is just the inaugural. Please believe there’s more to come.
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They say this is the place
where angels come again
They say that this is the place
where it all can happen for you…”
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For the kids like myself that grew up in ’90s, I think most of us remember an era when MTV was the purveyor of all things cool. Beavis & Butthead and Daria aired daily, The Real World wasn’t scripted yet and alternative, electronica, and hip-hop music inspired some of the dopest music videos of all time. The music video was a full-fledged art form, complete with superstar directors (Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry) and full of weird shit an eight year-old kid probably shouldn’t have been watching.
But hey. Now that MTV programming is almost exclusively dedicated to quality, thought-provoking programming like Jersey Shore and The Hills, it’s hard to see why anyone would be nostalgic for a time when these five-minute masterpieces ruled the small screen. In any case, Pitchfork picked 50 of their favorites, and luckily for us nostalgia junkies, Maaria gave me the heads up. Check here for the full list, and hit MORE for a few of my personal favorites.
First off, can we just take a minute to consider the fucking lineup on this track? Yeezy, Hov, Rozay and Nicki would be crazy already. But guest vocals from Bon Iver and Uncle Charlie? Fresh off the news that he and Jay are set to drop a five-track album soon, Ye dropped off the first official track tonight, via Twitter. “Monster”, also the first installment of Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music Fridays, is as varied, and maybe even as weird as the guest list looks on paper. It’s six minutes plus, and Ye went in. Nicki too. There’s a lot going on here, but at it’s best moments “Monster”, lives up to it’s name.
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Good songs come from a lot of different places. I remember last month at the Foreign Exchange show at Yoshi’s SF, Phonte spoke on the all-too-common, and frankly unnecessary debate between “mainstream” and “indie” fans. The Foreign Exchange proceeded to hit us with the musically inclined, neo-soul versions of “Turn My Swag On” and “Stanky Leg”, among others. That shit was comedy. The point being that at the end of the day, it’s all music, and the lines people tend to draw often have more to do with perception than musical quality. With the Bowties crowd, maybe I’m preaching to the choir. You guys have some eclectic tastes, which is why I can drop some Diddy and some Beach House in the same post, and not really think twice about it. Anyway, we’re glad to have you behind us. The best is yet to come.
We all need those jams to celebrate to. As celebratory anthems go, “Sometimes” held it down tough. And then there was the video. Pretty safe to say they hit a home run on that one. So what better way to follow up an infectious retro synth slap, than by doing it again. “Holidays” is the latest from the Australian producer Benjamin Plant’s disco-pop outfit, and to be real, it doesn’t deviate all that much from their past work. Not that that’s a bad thing though. The world can always use more fun music.
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This one is likely to crack hard and sell out fast, so getting tickets soon is probably the best course of action. Coming off one of the year’s most impressive albums with This Is Happening, James Murphy and company will take the stage in Hollywood on Friday, October 15th. Joining LCD on the same stage earlier that night will be Hot Chip and Sleigh Bells, which should set off the evening nicely, and loudly. Tickets are lightweight pricey, but three dope bands is hard to argue with. Cop here.
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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. It’s usually better to keep things simple. With the video for “Fuck You”, Cee-Lo’s songwriting is front and center, and with good reason. This is just a really, really well-written pop song, and it’s something most of us can probably relate to. All analysis aside though, this record put a big, stupid smile on my face last night. And not that many records are capable of doing that. Thought you might dig it too.
We knew we were on to something. The signs were coming from everywhere. Our heroes shined on us from above. Laying the path before us, they showed us how to turn our dreams into realities. And for that we lent them our ears. It was an exciting time. Because they were starting to feel it. Our work was trancending. Sidestepping demographics and penetrating the heart. We were speaking to our generation, and they were starting to believe. If Power captured the moment, the remix cemented the times. An entire generation was awakening. And things would never be the same.
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If you’re looking at resumes, there’s not many singers with better references than Bilal Oliver. Having worked with Dilla, Dr. Dre, Common, Jay-Z and The Clipse, to name a few, Bilal has been one of the most quietly ubiquitous voices in hip-hop and soul music over the past decade or so. It also doesn’t hurt that his voice is undeniably one of the best in popular music. So why his solo career never really took off would seem like a mystery, if you didn’t take into account the big label politics, leaks, and other bullshit that kept him from blowing up on a larger scale. Fortunately, that’s all old news, and Bilal is back to taking the approach that got him to where he’s at. Making undeniably dope, genre-bending soul music for the people. The appropriately-titled “Restart” is the first single from Airtight’s Revenge, due out on Plug Research September 14th. Might just have to cop that vinyl.
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“Got no time to for spreadin’ roots,
The time has come to be gone,
And to our health we drank a thousand times,
It’s time to ramble on…”
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I know what you’re thinking. This is some bubblegum, radio-friendly, autotune bullshit. Can’t really argue with you there. But fuck, this is catchy. “Your Love” wasn’t really doing it for me, but if Nicki is trying to make looping up ’80s shit a trademark, “Video Killed the Radio Star” is a good place to start. For the record, will.i.am is a genius. Yeah, his songs are generally about nothing. Yes, you can usually fit the lyrics to an entire Black Eyed Peas song on a small napkin. And yes, his songs are ubiquitous to the point that they make you want to burn down your local radio station. But it’s hardly his fault. The dude knows pop. And pop makes people happy. Don’t be surprised if you end up hearing this more times than you wanted to.
