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MIX: #CLAMJAMS (Best Of Clams Casino, 2011)

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#CLAMJAMS

Because someone on Tumblr Ask requested it, here’s a compilation of the best Clams Casino productions from last year. And Soulja’s “All I Need” which is technically from very late 2010. I consulted Joseph from No Gang Colors on this too and he mixed it. Of course, the real “best” work from 2011 is just Instrumentals but that’s no fun and we thought of this as a way to illustrate just how varied his production actually can be: broken Bay Area-style slappers, rainy Blade Runner synth bangers, that slurry moaning stuff we love so damn much, and a few that are just like, really gorgeous and like, “what? is this guy going to be composing Copland-like symphonies in 10 years or something?!” Also, we decided to avoid instrumentals if a version with a rapper exists, because while it’s one thing to suggest Clams’ work is better unadorned by rapping (some of it is), it’s quite another thing to be one of those jerks that’s all like “lol Soulja Boy.”

  • Eno on Casino
  • “Treetop”
  • The Weeknd – “The Fall”
  • XV – “Swervin” Remix
  • A$AP Rocky – “Bass”
  • Soulja Boy – “I Love My Fans”
  • Lil B – “Unchain Me”
  • Shady Blaze – “Haters Opinion”
  • The Jealous Guys – “Brainwashed By London”
  • Mac Miller – “My Team”
  • Squadda B – “Fakest Year Ever”
  • Big K.R.I.T. – “Moon & Stars” Remix
  • Lil B – “Motivation”
  • Main Attrakionz ft. A$AP Rocky – “Take 1″
  • “Numb”
  • “Wizard”
  • Soulja Boy – “All I Need”
  • Washed Out – “Amor Fati” Remix

Written by Brandon

January 2nd, 2012 at 7:55 pm

Posted in mix CD

MIX: 50 Best Songs Of 2011.

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50 Best Songs Of 2011

50 songs. A little more than 3 and a half hours. One big Mp3. Sorry. I could’ve made this into a Spotify playlist or something–though way too many of my favorites weren’t on there–but that’s no fun. I’m not so hot on ranking these songs either, so they’ve been organized into what I’d like to think is a pretty enjoyable mix. I’m going to reveal the tracklist throughout the month, five songs at a time, with some musings on why I think each song is awesome. Gimmicks! But really, I think this should be fun. Enjoy. Feel free to tell me what I missed or just what you liked this year in the comments section. Remember comments sections?! Those used to be pretty fun, right?

  • G-Mane, “Think” off All Nite Smoke Session: Florence, Alabama’s version of Bun B (the morally serious, deep voiced version that would never co-sign Drake) and friend to G-Side (he steals “Pictures” with his lack of propriety) tosses out dozens-like disses while he drops knowledge: “You got a new whip man, that’s tight, go and pick up your son”.
  • Ponytail, “Honey Touches” off Do Whatever You Want All The Time: Fuck dude, do you realize just how intensely sad this song is? Maybe not, because it’s the normal sugar-rush, prog-noise racket and Molly Siegel (now going by Willy) is singing about disappointment like she’s chuckling into the void. “I know it’s not that fun.”
  • G-Side ft. S.L.A.S.H., “Came Up” off The One…Cohesive: Those somber strings do it and the Southern gothic video helps too, but as usual, it’s G-Side’s sincerity, coupled with their understanding that somewhere in there the thing’s gotta knock, that sells this one. This is their single. The one that could/should be on the radio, you know?
  • SBTRKT ft. Sampha, “Something Goes Right” off SBTRKT: SBTRKT is a self-assured producer and Sampha’s one of those “he could sing the phonebook…” types. And so, rather than twist his soulful dubstep into a canny pop structure, Sampha just locates a pocket to croon in and out of and call it a day. Joker, hope you’re taking notes.
  • Todd Terje, “Snooze 4 Love (Original Mix)” off Ragysh: Internet king of the extended dance edit builds a bleary Balearic banger out of blips, bleeps, and bloops and subtle shifts in volume. Apparently, there is a Drive sequel coming out soon? If it also gets turned into a movie, please include this on the OST. Plan an ornate robbery to this.
  • Munchi, “Hope” off Blow Your Head Vol. 2: Dave Nada Presents Moombahton: Not really from this year, but it was on that Mad Decent comp. Plus, this thing’s just gorgeous and aching. If you heard it last year, try DJ Ayres’ Wayne Wonder blend. Problem is, if you heard this song last year, you heard that remix too. Moombahton will eat itself!
  • Skinny Friedman, “Who Da Neighbors Remix” off Trap Rave: More Moombahton. Sorry! Get over yourself. This remix of Juicy J’s retarded, great, catchy mixtape hit shuffles along, sprawls out, gets drilled into your head, breaks down, builds back up, squeaks, and squonks for an epic 7 minutes and 9 seconds.
  • J. Rocc, “Party” off Some Cold Rock Stuf: Who knew J. Rocc had this Armand Van Helden-y jam in him? Taking the Bollywood soundtrack obsession of the Stones Throw crew and turning it into something big loud and fun–instead of kitschy, played-out and obvious. And nerds need their own party rocker’s anthem.
  • Blaqstarr, “Coming Home” off Blaqstarr: The Mixtape: This mixtape track from the Baltimore Club weirdo puts that Last Train To Paris slow jam into a blender, turning Diddy’s pensive soul-searching song into a rambling monologue. This feels like it was knocked out in 5 minutes, which is exactly why it sounds so good.
  • Rashad & Gant-Man, “Heaven Sent” off Bang & Works Vol. 2: Again, from an Other Music-friendly compilation and possibly not from this year. But man, the Atari twinkling, up-up-up energy, and all-over-the-place drums let this one rise above its utilitarian dance-your-ass-off origins. Also on that all-around excellent Ghetto Teknitianz EP.
  • AraabMuzik, “Underground Stream” off Electronic Dream: If the cast of Jersey Shore came back as zombies and they had knives in their hands when they fist-pumped and they were stabbing you in the ears. This is a barely touched refix of DJ Nosferatu. Samples of samples of samples is the future of weird dance and I feel fine about that.
  • Lil Internet, “DMXICO”: Been reading Ioan Grillo’s El Narco, but this song rattles around in my head, making it hard to concentrate. Maybe that’s good, though? Pondering the devastating effects of the American “war on drugs” is pretty maddening. Then again, so is this song. Swiped from Julianne Escobedo Shepherd’s EVR show Universópolis.
  • Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris, “We Found Love” off Talk That Talk: The one was made to listen while rolling on a chintzy e-pill made in a dirty bathtub somewhere. There’s a like, hopeless intensity to the thing, but there’s something genuinely cathartic about this song too. “We found love in a hopeless place.” I mean shit man, that’s what it’s all about right?
  • Uncle Jesse, “Samson”: Dance punk drums, “Percolator”-like drip synths bouncing all around, and a ghostly horn sample that runs between both of your ears, adding some headphone fuckery to a party track that totally doesn’t need such a thing, but is all the better for it.
  • Ultra Naté, “Turn It Up”: Legendary disco house diva out-Gagas Gaga on this Rihanna-for-the-over-30-crowd club single. Disco strings, that thump every song’s got these days, and a polite touch of auto-tune makes this a commercial track with no commercial viability because it’s just a little too well-done?
  • Patrick Stump, “Spotlight (Oh Nostalgia)” off Truant Wave EP: Goofily charming slow build fist-pump pop that is nevertheless, the antithesis of Katy Perry’s “Firework.” Same cloying message but done just a whole bunch better. Gotta love that overreaching post-emo “depression is a little bit like happy hour” lyrical conceit.
  • Tabi Bonney, “Now’s The Time” off Postcard From Abroad: “We made it”/”we gon’ make it” speak-it-and-it-shall-be-so aspirational raps from this quasi-#BASED DC MC over a beat from Devo Springsteen, who co-produced “Diamonds From Sierra Leone,” and according to Wikipedia, did MTV and Sunkist ads–which makes a lot of sense.
  • Soulja Boy, “Zan With That Lean” off Juice: Souljer swagger-jacks YC’s “Racks” into a much better song, so who’s complaining exactly? JUICE! Potentially heart-stopping combinations of drugs have never sounded so fun. JUICE! Makes me wanna do that Curly from The Three Stooges, lay on the ground and spin around dance. JUICE!
  • Nicki Minaj, “Super Bass” off Pink Friday: And with this, “Old Nicki” ought to be buried for good. An unholy fusion of pop and rappity-rap that’s a sly love song to her quiet confidante SB. Makes her verse on Drake’s “Make Me Proud” sound like she’s trying too hard and new single “Roman In Moscow” feel limp and forced. She’s “shtick”-less here.
  • Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx, “I’ll Take Care Of You” off We’re New Here: So, the best song on Take Care isn’t even a Drake song. And those OVO fools cut off the best part: That Eddy Grant’s “Time Warp” on downers dance coda that ends this intensely aching song (and in a way, Scott-Heron’s career) on a damn near positive note.
  • Clams Casino, “Numb” off Instrumentals: G-Side rolled this one up into their widescreen sound for “Pictures” and ASAP Rocky boringly rapped over top of it on “Demons,” but it’s better without any of that. Those live-sounding drums rattle all around better and the melody–LOOK, I’VE RUN OUT OF ADJECTIVES FOR THIS GUY.
  • Nguzunguzu, “Timesup” off Timesup EP: Mysterioso percussion stackers even find a place for a sample of Baltimore club producer DJ Pierre (how has The Fader not grabbed onto him yet?) in here. And when they throw a baby coo-ing into the mix, they’ve almost earned the right to pay homage to Timbaland’s “Are You That Somebody” beat.
  • Burial + Four Tet + Thom Yorke, “Ego” off Ego/Mirror: Rarely ever do these dream collaborations work and even when they do, they barely ever sound um, good? But this is pretty much exactly what it should sound like if these three get in a room together: Yorke’s lost moans plus Four Tet’s patient house plus the hauntological scrape of Burial.
  • Oneohtrix Point Never, “Replica” off Replica: Pairing Guaraldi-like piano with hypnagogic drones and moans is pretty inspired and that Organisation/Kraftwerk “Tone Float” soaring flute thingy proves the texture-filled, jazz-fusion stuff Lopatin’s always repping has comfortably wormed its way into his work.
  • Main Attrakionz, “Chuch” off 808s & Dark Grapes 2: Sad-rapping over Gigi Masin’s “Clouds” at 45RPMs unveils the whole brotherly, anti-street code that’s central to Main, once the cloudy vibes subside. Seeing them play this for like 25 people at 3AM (one of those people being How To Dress Well) at 285 Kent during CMJ was something special.
  • The Field, “Then It’s White” off Looping State Of Mind: Axel Wilner has a few tricks up his sleeve, but who knew that being on some like modern classical shit was one of them? Kinda wish this song went on for 20 more minutes. Not a Clams Casino instrumental. But it could what makes in 10 years if he can keep it up.
  • Big K.R.I.T., “The Vent” off Return Of 4Eva: K.R.I.T. finally came into his own this year by losing his feigned Pimp C snarl and just playing “painfully sincere.” Here, he imagines talking to Kurt Cobain, gets emo (in the self-pitying, well-intentioned misogynist sense), and says the right thing to a mom confronted with the unthinkable.
  • DJ Khaled ft. Drake, Rick Ross, & Lil Wayne, “I’m On One” off We The Best Forever: You got Drake, who at least makes his cynicism interesting here, and Wayne, who sounds too weeded-out to care. Rick Ross obliviously rumbles along, whooping and rapping about banging girls on money stacks. Three different definitions of being “on one.”
  • Curren$y, “She Don’t Want A Man” off Weekend At Burnie’s: An emotionally intelligent understanding that a woman’s needs don’t have to be so different from a man’s needs. Cloud rap meets Slick Rick storytelling meets film noir. Spitta’s best song, if only because it’s so well-wrought and something’s actually at-stake.
  • Jay-Z & Kanye West, “New Day” off Watch The Throne: Over melted Nina Simone, the Throne get real, imagining their lives with a little runt running around. Notice how dread-laden it is, with Jay not ruling out the possibility of divorce or worse, and Kanye pretty much telling Ye’ Jr. everything’s fucked. Future Anthology Of Rap pt. 2, look out.
  • Stalley ft. Rashad, “Slapp” off Lincoln Way Nights: People groaned over his mixtape’s smug subtitle (“intelligent trunk music”) but Stalley’s low-stakes, mythmaking rhymes and producer and hook man Rashad queasy chillwave trunk-rattler totally earn that obnoxious, apt parenthetical. The sneaky, “The New Style” Beasties sample is a bonus.
  • Real Estate, “It’s Real” off Days: Single of the year. Maybe video of the year too. Top five at least. Sad and happy and simple. Confident, catchy, chilled-out pop that wasn’t afraid to get existential. We all wander kinda aimlessly, emotions are hard to express, and leaves decompose. At least the guitars jangle just right.
  • Cities Aviv, “Coastin” off Coastin’: An enormous sunbaked Shirley Bassey sample, some nods to LL Cool J and Nas, and rapping that’s in-the-pocket and traditionalist but twisted enough to sound invigorating and of this New Weird Underground. It’s like Cities is drunkenly rapping all this right into your ear. Available as a 7-inch!
  • KING, “The Story” off The Story EP: Big-upped by Phonte and ?uestlove, sampled by Kendrick Lamar (“Hey”), KING should’ve been over-hyped instead of slept-on. This highlight from their three-song EP pretty much does the same Los Angeles, haze & B as Ariel Pink or Nite Jewel, but with some actual soul thrown in there.
  • Ken Seeno, “Spirit Of 77″ off Open Window: What happens when you combine Terry Riley’s “Rainbow In Curved Air” with Giorgio Moroder’s “Swamps Of Sadness” from The Never Ending Story soundtrack? THIS! Cassette-only, dollar store komische. R.I.P. Ponytail. Long live Ponytail…in weird side-project form, at least.
  • Nite Jewel, “It Goes Through Your Head” off It Goes Through Your Head: Last of the chillwave bangers. No really, things got super diffuse real quick, huh? This one’s got a guitar solo (a crunchy Mike & the Mechanics one at that), a catchy melody, and Gonzalez sings like Joan Baez on “Rejoice In The Sun.”
  • Pictureplane, “Post Physical” off Thee Physical: A steampunk stitching together of noise, minimal techno, and hard house yearning that feels truly trangressive and queer-friendly, which hey, are key components of cool, hip dance music missing from a lot of it right now. Lady Gaga should cover this!
  • Danny Brown, “Scrap Or Die” off XXX: When I spoke to Danny, he explained how the second half of the album was intended to be these like folky, storytelling tales about people he knew. This one is about his uncle. So, the second half of XXX is pretty much the rap version of Lee Hazelwood’s Trouble Is A Lonesome Town?
  • Matic, “Hustle Hard Remix”: Baltimore club producer climbs inside of the cockpit of Luger’s rickety, stomping Voltron robot beat-making machine and mans the controls. It’s not like you can make a Luger beat rowdier or even weirder really, you just gotta match the destructive creativity and twist it up enough. Matic does that.
  • Prurient, “Time’s Arrow” off Time’s Arrow: Remember when Dominick Fernow grew bored with noise and turned 2011 into the year he tried to approximate the theme song to The Terminator? Even love the entry-level alt-goth topic of this song: the Black Dahlia. You can buy this on cassette, and you should.
  • Lil Wayne ft. Drake, “She Will” off Tha Carter IV: Sorry about this one guys, it’s just too good. The hook is gross, Drake sounds icky, and Lil Wayne’s on auto-pilot and Danny Brown’s squirmy sex rap “I Will” shames this, but the whirring, grinding beat from T-Minus and the fact that it sounds great and weird on the radio is enough.
  • Cam’ron & Vado, “American Greed” off Gunz N’ Butta: Secret is, these hardheads made one of the more political rap albums of the year. That album title, and this song’s hook (“American greed turn you into the worst type, you get more dirty when your collar and shirt white”) sorta says it all. Less Maybach Music and more Madoff Music please.
  • DJ Drama ft. Gucci Mane, “Me & My Money” off Third Power: A baroque Drumma Boy beat that Wikipedia tells you Mike Dean co-produced, which isn’t true. The casual ornate-ness of it would make you believe he was, though. A Jaws theme rumble and desperate strings soundtracking Gucci’s co-dependent ode to his money? Very Kanye + Dean.
  • Starlito & Don Trip, “Life” off Step Brothers: Lil Lody! More of these, less Lex Luger rip-offs. Starlito and Don Trip, just keep doing exactly this. Thrillingly sad street rap with enough swagger and an overdose of honesty. Love Lito but he wisely just gets out of the way at a certain point on this one and lets Don Trip go off.
  • Fiend, “Ghost Town” off Cool Is In Session: Listen man, this is a song in which Fiend (who along with German techno producer Robag Wruhme secretly had the best year of anybody and didn’t get enough love) inexplicably raps over a second wave Ska classic really, really well. What more do you want?
  • Miguel, “Sure Thing” off All I Want Is You: Every bit as blissed-out as the Weeknd, which means Miguel’s on some other shit and the Weeknd could and probably should be on the radio. Almost makes up for the existence of “Quickie.” Technically from last year, which I’m just now realizing…
  • Chris Brown ft. Benny Benassi, “Beautiful People” off F.A.M.E.: Wasn’t gonna include this, but it’s just too good to ignore, even if it is from a shit bag, man-baby, women-beating idiot. For what it’s worth, “We Found Love,” Rihanna’s Euro-dance response musically chokes this Breezy song out and gives it a black eye.
  • Holy Ghost!, “Jam For Jerry” off Holy Ghost!: I’ve written a lot about this song this year. But here’s the best way to say it. My best friend Mike shot himself about 5 years ago and though that’s a different tragedy than falling down an elevator shaft, no songs nails grief and guilt better than this one. And you can dance to it!
  • Future Islands, “Balance” off On The Water: Reminding the hopeless that things will get better, worldly-wise vocalist Sam Herring intones, “it just takes time,” like he’s a close friend giving you advice over several beers. Could also be called “We Found Love.” Also kinda knocks in the same bittersweet way. Also also has a really misty-eyed video.
  • Phonte, “The Good Fight” off Charity Starts At Home: Tigallo plays your hard-assed dad, smacking some sense into you while empathizing with your situation, but mostly just being all, “yo, deal with it like everybody else.” The first verse lay-off story’s a fucking tearjerker. Little Brother’s “Speed” retrofitted for the recession.

image stolen from Keenan Marshall Keller

Written by Brandon

December 17th, 2011 at 9:51 pm

Posted in 2011, mix CD

MIX: The Best Rap Songs of the Second Half of the Year

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The Best Rap Songs of the Second Half of the Year.

To follow-up this SPIN post from July, here are my favorite rap songs from the second half of 2011. I’m about to give you a bunch of write-ups for my “50 Best Songs Of 2011,” so not gonna give you pithy song descriptions for these, just a mix, which you can download above.

And yeah, there’s some crossover between this list and my 50 songs of 2011 one, and in some cases, I’ve picked different songs from artists represented on that list, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to you all I’m sure, but in my head, what makes a great song and a great rap song isn’t necessarily the same thing.

  • Phonte, “The Good Fight”
  • G-Side, “Rabbits”
  • Nacho Picasso, “Marvel”
  • Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, “Thuggin”
  • The Roots ft. Phonte & Dice Raw, “One Time”
  • Young Jeezy, “Shake Life”
  • G-Mane, “Think”
  • Fiend “Ghost Town”
  • Drake, “Look What You’ve Done”
  • DDm, “Last On Ur Dial”
  • Cities Aviv & Royal T, “Araw”
  • Lil Wayne, “Nightmares Of The Bottom”
  • Starlito & Don Trip, “Life”
  • XV, “Wichita”
  • Main Attrakionz & Shady Blaze, “Change”
  • Jay-Z & Kanye West, “Who Gon’ Stop Me”
  • B L A C K I E, “Warchild”
  • Danny Brown, “Lie4″

Written by Brandon

December 17th, 2011 at 6:26 pm

Posted in 2011, mix CD

MIX: Snooptunes.

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Snooptunes

Based on last week’s Tumblr Ask discussion about Snoop’s non-Doggystyle input and my affinity for R & G (and really, all of his collaborations with the Neptunes), and because one person asked for it, here’s a mix of most of the Neptunes and Snoop’s official work together. I left off “Special” from Malice n’ Wonderland and the track from the Game’s Purp & Patron and probably a few others like that awesome Tyga track so that I could round it out to a nice hour of listening. Enjoy.

  • “It Blows My Mind” (off The Neptunes Present…Clones)
  • “Let’s Get Blown” (off R & G)
  • “Say Somethin” (off Mariah Carey’s Emancipation Of Mimi)
  • “Signs” (off R & G)
  • “Beautiful” (off Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Boss)
  • “Sets Up” (off Ego Trippin)
  • “Vato” (off Tha Blue Carpet Treatment)
  • “Pass It Pass It” (off R & G)
  • “Don’t Stop” (off Beanie Sigel’s The B.Coming)
  • “Drop It Like It’s Hot” (off R & G)
  • “10 Lil Crips” (off Tha Blue Carpet Treatment)
  • “From Tha Chuuuuch To Da Palace” (off Paid Tha Cost To Be Tha Boss )
  • “That Girl” (off Pharrell’s In My Mind)
  • “Perfect” (off R & G)

Written by Brandon

October 27th, 2011 at 5:00 pm

Posted in Neptunes, mix CD

MIX: ¿¿¿PROG MIX???

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¿¿¿PROG MIX???

So, I got a request for a “prog mix.” That’s sorta broad and so, to maintain a focus and limit my options, I decided to go with my favorite period of progressive rock: the mid-to-late 70s. The reason I like this era better than the earlier prog stuff is because well, it moves into total cheese territory and it isn’t cool and you hear all of these hard rockin’ nerds gently moving into genres they probably didn’t think they would ever mess with. It’s an era of transition and that’s always fascinating. The soft rock of the 80s makes sense when you listen to this stuff. And even the concepts pushed by music historians that put bloated progressive rock on one side of the music battle up against punk rock or even, hip, cosmopolitan disco, are a little confounded here. Some of this shit rocks like punk and some of it swings like disco. To put it even simpler though, I just love this shit. Quasi-new age grooves, proto-Steve Perry ballads, super-technical bangers, lots and lots of synth silliness. Listening to this, you’ll be magically transported into outer space and you’ll be nude riding a Pegasus, and there’ll be tears in your eyes.

  • Starcastle, “Silver Winds”
  • Goblin, “La Danza”
  • 10cc, “Welcome To The World”
  • New York Gong, “Much Too Old”
  • Mike Oldfield, “Platinum”
  • Magma, “The Last Seven Minutes”
  • Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, “Canario”
  • Camel, “Lady Fantasy”
  • PFM, “Storia In ‘la”
  • Gentle Giant, “Give It Back”
  • Focus, “Night Flight”

Written by Brandon

July 5th, 2011 at 4:28 am

Posted in mix CD

MIX: The Best Rap Songs of the Year… So Far

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The Best Rap Songs of the Year… So Far.

Here’s a mix of the songs from this week’s Spin column.

  • Killer Mike, “Burn”
  • Squadda B, “Fakest Year Ever”
  • Stalley, “Slapp”
  • Zilla, ft. 2Eleven and Monster, “Mella Hating”
  • G-Side ft. S.L.A.S.H., “Came Up”
  • Big K.R.I.T., “The Vent”
  • Mullyman, “Special Delivery”
  • Kanye West & Jay-Z, “H.A.M.”
  • Ace Hood, ft. Rick Ross and Lil Wayne, “Hustle Hard (Remix)”
  • Cities Aviv, “Die Young”
  • DJ Quik, “Ghetto Rendezvous”
  • Soulja Boy, “Zan with That Lean”
  • International Jones, “Absolutely”
  • Riitz, ft. Yelawolf, “Sleep at Night”
  • Wiz Khalifa, ft. Too $hort, “On My Level”
  • Waka Flocka Flame, “All I Need”

Written by Brandon

July 2nd, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Posted in mix CD

MIX: 10cc: Favorites from the Godley & Creme Years

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10cc: Favorites from the Godley & Creme Years.

I created a monster. So someone, for some reason, requested a “10cc mix” on Tumblr. Unfortunately, the last 10cc album I’ve listened to is 1980’s Look Hear, which is probably further into their career than a lot of other people got, but doesn’t totally cover their whole discography up to 1983 whe they stop, so I figured I’d stick to the era when Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were still in the band. That gives me their first four albums to work with. There’s plenty of good stuff after those dudes leave in 1976 but this seemed like a good way of making this mix manageable and sincere.

The focus here was just on the songs I really like, so it’s not comprehensive at all and focuses on their ironic soft-rock ballads rather than their slightly-less-ironic-than-Zappa rockers. And quite a few hits are missing but you can go cop a “greatest hits” collection if you want that, but as the Bruce McCulloch once said, “greatest hits album are for housewives and little girls.” Oh yeah, of course, “I’m Not In Love” is included here because it is probably the best song ever made. It’s also used really well in the movie Deuce Bigalow. Anyways, enjoy.

  • “I’m Mandy, Fly Me”
  • “Somewhere In Hollywood”
  • “I’m Not In Love”
  • “Johnny Don’t Do It”
  • “How Dare You”
  • “Don’t Hang Up”
  • “Blackmail”
  • “The Worst Band In The World”
  • “Art For Arts Sake”
  • “Speed Kills”
  • “Clockwork Creep”
  • “Headline Hustler”
  • “Brand New Day”

Written by Brandon

June 24th, 2011 at 5:44 pm

Posted in mix CD

MIX: Dilla Goes Electric.

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Dilla Goes Electric Mix.

Because you asked for it. No really, you did! Probably setting a bad precedent here, taking mix requests via Tumblr’s “ask” feature, but last week, someone asked this: “can you make an ‘electric dilla’ mix?” And so, Joseph of No Gang Colors and I spent the weekend putting together this mix of electronic Dilla shit, which is presumably what the person when they asked for “electric dilla.”

We still called it Dilla Goes Electric though because it sounds cool and kinda like “Dylan goes electric,” you know? So here you go, an hour and some change of mostly instrumental electronic Dilla productions, and the SV remix of Daft Punk’s “Aerodynamic” which may or may not have been produced by Dilla (but probably was if this interview with Busy P of Ed Banger is considered trustworthy). Enjoy.

  • “B.B.E. (Big Booty Express)”
  • Q-Tip, “Go Hard”
  • Slum Village ft. MC Breed, “Do You”
  • “Shake It Down”
  • “Won’t Do”
  • “Da Factory”
  • “What Up”
  • Daft Punk, “Aerodynamic (Slum Village Remix)
  • “Safety Dance”
  • Royce Da 5′9”, “Let’s Grow”
  • “caDILLAc”
  • “Ruff Draft Interlude”
  • Phat Kat, “Big Booties”
  • “Body Movin”
  • “Lightworks”
  • “Let’s Take It Back”
  • “King”
  • “Da 1st Installment Beat 3″
  • “E=Mc2″
  • J. Dilla, “Trucks”
  • Busta Rhymes, “Make It Hurt”
  • “In The Night (Owl N Out) – While You Slept (I Crept)”
  • “Milk Money”
  • Slum Village, “Who Are We”
  • “Da 1st Installment Beat 8″

Written by Brandon

June 21st, 2011 at 12:27 am

Posted in J-Dilla, mix CD

MIX: Hold Tight.

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Hold Tight Mix

Earlier today, someone asked me on Tumblr, “do you think yo can find a better song than this?” and then linked to Change’s “Hold Tight.” I wasn’t sure if I could, but I thought that the least I could do was provide a list of similarly awesome songs. And then, tonight I put together a mix of those songs and I added a few others to stretch it out to a nice hour or so. Enjoy!

  • Change, “Hold Tight”
  • Slave, “Dreamin”
  • Shalamar, “I Can Make You Feel Good”
  • George Duke, “Straight From The Heart”
  • Loose Ends, “Hangin’ On A String (Contemplating)”
  • Kashif, “Stone Love”
  • Michael Wycoff, “Looking Up To You”
  • Cameo, “Sparkle”
  • The Gap Band, “I Can’t Get Over You”
  • Maze, “Joy And Pain”
  • Junior, “Mama Used To Say (Extended Version)”
  • One Way, “Dynomite”

Written by Brandon

June 12th, 2011 at 2:01 am

Posted in mix CD

MIX: 25 Best Rap Songs, 2010.

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25 Best Rap Songs 2010.

Had a few requests for a .zip of these songs, so I decided to make a mix instead (hit me up on Twitter if you want a zip though). Tried to sequence these in a way that maximized listenability and added something of a narrative to the year. So, we begin with ST from G-Side deconstructing Drake’s “Over,” telling the story of his label Slow Motion Sounds, and quipping (the way a rapper in 2010 only could), that his freestyle “will be all over the world” within a few hours. And we end with Bun B and DJ Premier paying a quick tribute to Guru and then, making rap that’s on auto-pilot sure, but is excellent nonetheless. In between, there’s some radio hits, some tracks everybody liked, a few I dare say are slept-on, and probably too much Baltimore hip-hop. Enjoy!

Written by Brandon

December 28th, 2010 at 5:39 am

Posted in 2010, Uncategorized, mix CD

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