Good Weather For Airstrikes

Yesterday Zack over at All Things Go informed me of his intentions to post a Valentine’s Day mix he made with the help of GWFAS contributor Everett (who I guess temporarily defected) and showed me his tracklisting and artwork for it, thus inspiring me to blatantly copy him and make my own mix, titled M3 Valentine Edition. I kind of feel badly because I jacked his idea and yet still posted mine before him, so you should all make sure you check out Zack and Evro’s mix here. The only song that both of our mixes share is the lead-off track, Outkast’s immaculate “Happy Valentine’s Day”, which is easily one of the best holiday-themed songs of all time, which kicks off both of our mixes, but then both go their own separate ways from there. Below is the cover art and tracklisting (click on the images to enlarge so that it looks clearer), as well as a (very rushed and poorly written) track by track explanation of the album.1. “Happy Valentine’s Day” - Outkast
Andre 3000 at his finest, one of the best and funkiest tracks on The Love Below and easily the best holiday-themed song of all time (and yes, I’m aware I already said that).

2. “Digital Love” - Daft Punk
Some of you might be surprised to find Daft Punk on a Valentine’s Day compilation comprised predominantly of love songs, but that would mean you’re forgetting the cardinal rule of mix CDs - that is, any mix is automatically made 1000% better by Daft Punk’s presence on it.

3. “Heartbeat” - Annie
Pitchfork’s #1 single of 2004, “Heartbeat” is sheer dancefloor bliss courtesy of the new queen of Euro-pop, Annie.

4. “This Modern Love” - Bloc Party
“This Modern Love” was definitely one of the best tracks of 2005, but unfortunately was excluded from my Top 25 Songs of 2005 list, pretty much only because I felt like putting six Bloc Party songs in the Top 25 would make me look ridiculous.

5. “Dice” - Finley Quaye & William Orbit
Yeah, I’ll admit it, I first heard this song on the New Year’s episode of the first season of The OC, and I immediately loved it. You should too.

6. “What I’m Trying To Say” - Stars
One of the top three tracks on Stars’ stellar (lolz) 2005 album, Set Yourself On Fire, “Trying To Say” might sound like it’s nothing but lust and lo-fi synthesizers, but it’s so much more.

7. “Crown of Love” - Arcade Fire
Beautiful, swirling love song explodes into a strings-laden dance party at the 3:43 mark, but it’s not like you haven’t listened to every song on Funeral at least 1,000 times already.

8. “This Is The Dream of Win & Regine” - Final Fantasy
Wondering who’s responsible for those beautiful strings on “Crown of Love”? It’s Owen Pallet, known as Final Fantasy on the streets, here with his best song from his 2005 solo debut, Has A Good Home.

9. “The Pledge” - Brendan Benson
Brendan Benson pledges to “always love you and never put anyone else above you”, and to make it his “life-mission” over banging percussion and tolling bells on this, the second-best track from 2005’s The Alternative to Love (see Zack’s mix for the best track off of that album, “Cold Hands, Warm Heart”).

10. “Funny Little Frog” - Belle & Sebastian
Lead singer and lyricist Stuart Murdoch fantastizes about a girl from afar and dreams of their perfect relationship on the first single from B&S’s great new album The Life Pursuit.

11. “Pull Me In Tighter” - Rilo Kiley
If Jenny Lewis actually needs to ask her companion to pull her in tighter then there’s really something wrong with the world.

12. “Inside & Out” - Feist
French soft-jazz-rock courtesy of Feist, in which she declares that she’s the girl that will “love! you! inside and out” forever.

13. “First Day of My Life” - Bright Eyes
One of, if not the single happiest songs Conor Oberst has ever written, watch the overwhelmingly adorable music video to really get in the Valentine’s Day mood.

14. “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” - Death Cab
Back in early August PASTE magazine declared this “Plans best song because “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” is one of the most gorgeous songs of the past decade, in any genre, throughout the heliosphere”. While that might be a slight overstatement, this is still one of the most touching and moving songs Gibbard’s ever penned.

15. “Such Great Heights” - Ben Gibbard
Now for what actually is one of “the most gorgeous songs of the past decade, in any genre, throughout the heliosphere”, “Such Great Heights”, my favorite song of all time, performed acoustically by Ben Gibbard here in beautiful fashion.

Feel free to download this mix, print out the artwork, find that special someone to give it to and take credit for it yourself if you think it’ll score you points. Also, Zack and Everett wanted me to ask you guys which V-Day mix you enjoyed more (again, you can see there’s here), so feel free to post your choice for your favorite in the comments. Again, I hope everyone has a happy Valentine’s Day, enjoy the mix.

Before launching into the body of this post, I’d just like to say that I’ve had a ridiculously good/crazy week. On Tuesday I got to see the lovely Feist (with Jason Collett) from the front row of UVA’s (well actually Charlottesville’s) tiny Sattellite Ballroom, which was a great show. But the true highlight of my week came on Thursday when my friend Stephen (who was actually my host when I visited UVA as a prospective student last year) and I threw together a last-minute trip to NYC to see Sigur Ros from the 6th row in the Theater at Madison Square Garden. I’ll be doing full reviews/write-ups of those two shows later this week (I promise), but for now I want to draw attention to another one of the highlights of last week: the release of Death Cab’s brand new video for their second single from Plans, “Crooked Teeth”.

For “Crooked Teeth” Ace Norton, who’s also contributing a video for “Someday You Will Be Loved” to DCFC’s Directions series, directs a brilliant homage to Peter Gabriel’s 1987 stop-animation classic video for “Sledgehammer” (which you can and should watch or download here). Norton takes many of the tricks used in the “Sledgehammer” video, which was directed by Stephen Montmus, modifying them slightly and of course adding a modern polish to wonderfully entertaining effect, creating a video that works perfectly for the song. I especially love the part where the blended guitar effect (at the 2:33 mark of the song) perfectly coincides with Ben Gibbard’s perfectly round head (seriously, it’s geometrically flawless) getting swirled in a blender. All in all it’s a really enjoyable video and is the early contender for February’s video of the month honors.

Video: “Crooked Teeth” - Death Cab [highly recommended]
Bonus Video: “Sledgehammer” - Peter Gabriel

First let me apologize for the lack of posts and updates this past week or so, but I’ve been hard at work on a new project that should please most of you immensely (however, Everett still has no excuse). This new project shall be launched shortly, to much pomp and circumstance, and I really think a lot of you will be thrilled, but until then you’ll have to deal with a slight lull in updates here, though Evro and I will still do our best to please the masses. Anyway, onto today’s update.Though this is mostly old news around the blogosphere now, Voxtrot released a new song, the title track from their upcoming Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP, which is to be released in April (but if you preorder it here it’ll ship out March 21st). Despite the fact that it’s already been covered extensively in the last couple days, I absolutely had to post it here, as it’s just way too good to go ignored. If you’ll recall, I named Voxtrot’s “Start of Something” the eleventh best song of 2005, and call me crazy, but I honestly think “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives” is just as good if not, gasp, better. “Mothers” features an incredibly catchy chorus (with an even catchier riff) and increased production values, but the highlight has to be the final chorus that begins at the 3:07 mark, where lead singer Ramesh Srivastva turns the intensity and desperation up a notch and closes is out strong. Rarely, if ever, do I listen to songs on repeat, but in an unexpected turn of events, I was physically unable to turn this song off on Friday and listened to it on repeat for probably an hour while I cleaned my room. Download this slice of glory below, along with my other two favorite Voxtrot songs off of the Raised By Wolves EP, “Start of Something” and “Wrecking Force”.

“Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives” - Voxtrot [highly recommended]
“Start of Something” - Voxtrot [highly recommended]
“Wrecking Force” - Voxtrot [highly recommended]

Also, GvB brought to my attention Voxtrot guitarist Jared van Fleet’s acoustic-side project, Sparrow House, which features sparse, acoustic arrangements and subdued vocals, far removed from the much more rocking guitar-based sound of Voxtrot. While I’m unaware of any official plans for a Sparrow House release, “When I Am Gone” has surfaced as the first Sparrow House recording and it’s wonderful. However, while most of my friends (and by that I mean Everett and Zack) are praising this as incredible and even better than Voxtrot’s “Mothers”, I have to disagree slightly. This is still a good song and an enjoyable listen, but I feel like it can’t hold a candle to nearly all of Voxtrot’s work, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as nearly all of Voxtrot’s songs are exceptional. The only thing that’s certain is it’s better than Eminem’s song of the same name, which I endured the terrible video for yesterday on mtvU. Download below:

“When I Am Gone” - Sparrow House

Finally, in a complete genre 180, reigning king of Billboard hip-hop Citizen Kanye West is about to release his much-anticipated extravaganze of a video for his next single, “Touch The Sky”. After the whole Gondry/”Heard ‘Em Say” debacle (I mean, who turns down Gondry… he’s fucking Michel Gondry), hopefully this one will pan out much better, but from the looks of the trailer that director Chris Milk has released on his website, this should be awesome. The clip, set in the 70’s, will apparently feature Kanye as a black Evil Knieval-type daredevil, who will be attempting to “Touch The Sky” by jumping the Grand Canyon. Milk has already directed two brilliant videos for Kanye in “Jesus Walks” and “All Falls Down”, the latter of which is the best hip-hop video in years, as well as wonderful clip for Modest Mouse (”Ocean Breathes Salty”). This looks to be really well done and on par with Chris’ previous work, so stream the trailer from Milk’s site below and check out the pending hotness for yourself.

STREAMING ONLY: “Touch The Sky” Trailer - Kanye West

Again, sorry for the lull in updates and feel free to allow your anticipation to mount for the announcement later this week.

This is the first installment (and when Derek sees this, possibly the last) of my new weekly post: Everett’s Wacky Midnight Amusing Track of the Week! And let me tell you, this midnight’s is most excellent. Many of you may be familiar with a website called HomeStarRunner.com . It played a significant role in my adolescence in that I was included by ‘the cool kids’ in high school because I laughed at all of Homestars wacky comments. That is how I first made friends at my new school! Jesus always said that laughter was the best medicine that he couldn’t miraculously provide, and if my sickness was lack of acceptance, then HomeStarRunner.com provided the antidote! Awh yeah! But I digress. Homestar is not the only main character at the website that bears his name; oh no, there is also Strong Bad and Strong Mad and Strong Sad and of course, the motherfuckin’ Cheat! Who could beat the Cheat? Nobody! The Cheat directed the music video for this hot summer jam, featuring Strong Bad on the pipes and, rest assured, the Cheat works his usual magic in the production booth. Download “Everybody To The Limit (the fhqwgads song)” below. [note: this song goes best with the sunroof open (as Nas would say, “Don’t say my car’s topless, say the titties is out”!), cruisin’ for some fly honeys. Because honestly, any fly honey that is not down with fhqwgads is a fly honey that you needn’t waste your time on. Thank me later, or in the comments section! Byebye!

Strong Bad, Everybody To The Limit (the fhqwgads song) [highly recommended]