Good Weather For Airstrikes

A blog is nothing without its readers, so this post is to serve as one big “thank you” to everyone whose ever read and commented, whether they agreed with my views or thought I was a pretentious douchebag. I’ve got a long (long) list of personal thank you’s to say, but they’ll all come after the jump to save the rest of you from the tedium of my sentimental ramblings. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s exclusives and to round out the festivities, here’s a bit more downloadable loving for you all. I’ve received countless requests to re-upload the M3 compilations (all the links pre-hiatus/pre-July are unfortunately dead), and while I’ve clearly been slacking on my goal of re-upping all the highlights from GWFAS 1.0, I have finally gotten around to fixing all the links M3 volumes 1-9. Clicking on each of the buttons below will take you to the M3 Volume to which it is assigned, I hope you’ll all enjoy listening to them as much as I enjoyed creating them.

M3 Volume 1: [Original Post]

M3 Volume 2: [Original Post]

M3 Volume 3: [Original Post]

M3 Volume 5: [Original Post]

M3 Volume 6: [Original Post]

M3 Volume 7: [Original Post]

M3 Volume 8: [Original Post]

M3 Volume 9: [Original Post]

M3 Volume 10: [Original Post]
(more…)

After over a year and a half of M3 mixes (which is the concept that started everything), we’ve reached a big milestone, the tenth installment in the series. Rather than getting all crazy and drunk with success (success? ha) and expanding the mix to twenty songs or doing some best-of retrospective, I decided to challenge myself with a concrete theme for M3 Volume 10, and after much deliberation I settled on it: female vocals. Too often I’ve heard people say “I don’t like bands with girl singers” or something foolish along those lines, so here’s a mix to rectify ignorant notions like that. I did my best to shy away from the easy big names like Jenny Lewis and Feist and company, though Regina Spektor and Amy Milan did make the cut, but for the most part these are lesser known women or bands with female vocalists (The Revelations? Havana Guns? Delays? Who?). Let it be known that M3 Volume 10 is not completely bereft of male vocals, as the guys chip in with back-up vox from time to time, but there’s no doubt it’s the women who own the spotlight here. Truth be told, Torquil Campbell does sneak a verse in during “One More Night” at the very end of the mix, but its one of my favorite verses of all time so I let it slide. A special thanks is owed to James from Green Pea-ness, without whom three of the critical tracks (“Fulwood Babylon”, “You’re The Loser” and “The Get Go”) would not be here, as it was he who turned me onto them in the first place. Now then, with that out of the way, let’s move on to the track summary.

Oddly enough, this all-female M3 begins with Harvey Keitel’s voice presiding over the intro to the first track, Johnny Boy’s self-titled theme, on which the eerie intro (which is sampled from Mean Streets) soon gives way to a barrage of percussion and the mix is officially off and running. Next up is The Long Blondes’ Erol Alkan-produced b-side, “Fulwood Babylon”, one of the elite songs of the year, which gives way to Havana Guns’ shockingly-unheard “She Always Goes Down”, which I nicked off of Bliss Pop’s hit parade back before the Guns tragically disbanded. Next up are two 50’s girl-pop revivalist groups, The Revelations with “You’re The Loser” and The Pipettes and those heavenly “whoa-oh-oh” backing vocals on my favorite track from their 2006 self-titled debut, “Sex”. Those signature “Be My Baby” drums continue, almost identically, on Johnny Boy’s amazing and incredibly-titled debut single from way back in 2003, “You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve”. Rounding off side one (let’s pretend we’re classy vinyl listeners) is Delays “Nearer Than Heaven”, which somehow manages to soar just as high as “Generation” and is a fitting end to the mixes first half.

Recent blogger favorite Headlights kick off the second segment of the mix with “Put Us Back Together Right”, and continuing the surgical theme, Charlotte Gainsbourg literally attempts take her lover apart and (presumably) put them back together right on “The Operation” off of her stellar debut album, 5:55. The driving basslines only continue from “Operation” to New Young Pony Club’s discreetly-danceable “The Get Go”, which has snuck it’s way into heavy rotation on my iPod despite my initial neutrality towards it. The Shortwave Set follow with their excellent new single, “Is It Any Wonder”, starting a catchy-piano-riff trend that will continue over the next three tracks on Imogen Heap’s excellent b-side “Speeding Cars”, Gainsbourg’s “Everything I Cannot See” and Regina Spektor’s “Better”, the latter of which features The Strokes’ Nick Valensi making a guest appearance on electric guitar. Closing things out is one of my favorite tracks of last year and one of the best break up songs of all time, Stars’ “One More Night”, which Stars announced at ACL to be about “trying to fuck someone in order to kill them”. And on that pleasant note, a milestone is born. Downloads below.

UPDATE: Wow, I really fucked this up. Turns out the lead singer of Delays is a dude, which is pretty much ridiculous. I had a sneaking suspicion this might be true, but a quick poll of my friends yielded the consensus, “There’s no way in hell that’s a guy”, so I left the mix be. Oh well, it’s too late to change it now, we’ll all just have to do our best to perservere. Here’s to irresponsible fact-checking!

Download: M3 Volume 10 [follow link]

M3 Volume 10:
01. “Johnny Boy Theme” - Johnny Boy
02. “Fulwood Babylon” - The Long Blondes
03. “She Always Goes Down” - Havana Guns
04. “You’re The Loser” - The Revelations
05. “Sex” - The Pipettes
06. “You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes…” - Johnny Boy
07. “Nearer Than Heaven” - Delays
08. “Put Us Back Together Right” - Headlights
09. “The Operation” - Charlotte Gainsbourg
10. “The Get Go” - New Young Pony Club
11. “Is It Any Wonder” - The Shortwave Set
12. “Speeding Cars” - Imogen Heap
13. “Everything I Cannot See” - Charlotte Gainsbourg
14. “Better” - Regina Spektor
15. “One More Night” - Stars

UPDATE: Ezarchive is back up and running and the link is working again. Enjoy.

Finally. FINALLY. I’ve been searching for this song for fucking ever. Yeah, yeah, “The Marshals Are Dead” was a track on Bloc Party’s excellent self-titled debut EP back in 2004, but it was rumored that Paul Epworth had produced another version of the track that was a last minute cut from Silent Alarm. However, countless searches proved fruitless and I had just about given up hope, until my So Here We Are 7″ arrived in the mail from Rough Trade last month. I expected it to come backed on the b-side by “Positive Tension” (as was the case on the CD release), but no! There it was – “‘The Marshals Are Dead’, produced and mixed by Paul Epworth”. Needless to say I played the record more or less on repeat for the rest of the day, thrilled to find out just how much better the Epworth version of the track is than the original. Both the Silent Alarm versions of “Banquet” and “She’s Hearing Voices” trump their EP counterparts, but neither holds a candle to the vast improvement between the EP and re-produced versions of “Marshals”.

Making the original sound like nothing more than a shitty demo, Epworth’s re-produced hotness is the slick, polished Bloc Party we’ve all come to know and love. Matt’s drumming is as tight as ever, Russell’s guitar riffs are sharp and angular as usual, Kele’s “forever!” yelps sound fantastic, and Gordon even gets his own short verse, a first as far as I’m aware of. As I was converting this from vinyl to mp3 in UVa’s incredible sound lab, the rotund fifty year-old woman who was helping me out insisted on putting the volume on high as we recorded and got way too into it. When someone knocked on the door requesting that we turn down our “headbanger music” (actual words), she defended it saying, “Come on, we’re just rocking out a little”, and I just smiled uneasily and shifted from foot to foot. The awkward circumstances surrounding the way in which I attained the track aside, it’s an absolutely awesome update to a song that was already great, and the improvement is so great that we can basically view this as a new Bloc Party song. Seriously, I can’t tell you how excited I am about this; download below or you shall rue the day.

MP3: “The Marshals Are Dead” (7″ Version) - Bloc Party ((highly recommended))

So you’ve already had a few days to freak out over the immaculate freshness that is The Long Blondes’ “Fulwood Babylon” (the b-side to their latest single, “Weekend Without Makeup”) but now I’m gonna do you one better and hook you up with the other two tracks from the Blondes’ sessions with dance producer du jour Erol Alkan. “Platitudes” and “Last Night On Northgate Street”, as their called, don’t come close to matching the perfection of “Fulwood”, but it’s interesting to see what Alkan, in his first time ever producing a band, can do with these tracks. “Platitudes” is a bit more experimental than I’d like my Long Blondes tracks, with intentional feedback consistently popping up throughout, but it’s got that signature Erol Alkan depth and a mediocre Long Blondes’ song is still better than the bulk of material coming out of Sheffield right now (not to knock the vibrant Sheffield music scene, I just don’t think there’s another band there right now operating at the same level that the Blondes are). “Last Night On Northgate Street” is the real keeper of the two, with the same jangly, skittery guitars and compelling narratives - not to mention some more of that great spoken word action - that we’ve come to know and love from the band. All in all, these three tracks get me extremely interested to see what Alkan was given the opportunity to get some more production experience with other bands (the mere thought of a Bloc Party-Erol Alkan collaboration leaves me needing a fresh pair of undies) and this is definitely an impressive start to his fledgling production career.

MP3s:
“Fulwood Babylon” - The Long Blondes ((highly recommended))
“Platitudes” - The Long Blondes
“Last Night On Northgate Street” - The Long Blondes

It’s a celebration, bitches. Who knew - exactly one year ago on an uneventful mid-September day such as this one, I tossed my hat into the ring of mp3 blogging. Since then I’ve taken on a partner in crime in Everett Case, interned with my favorite record label and even gotten a brief mention in the New York Times. The good (see previous sentence) has vastly outweighed the bad (RIAA issues, ezarchive meltdowns, Postal Service controversy), and my drive to find new music to feature has led to the discovery of countless incredible bands I may otherwise never have come across. I’ve had a lot of fun doing this and it’s created a lot of opportunities for me, so first and foremost I’d like to thank all of the readers who visit this site - whether you agree with my views or think I’m a pretentious douchebag, a blog is nothing without it’s readers and your comments and feedback have made this entire undertaking worth while. I’ve got a lengthy list of friends, family, and acquaintances to thank as well, but I’ll get that done at the end of today’s posts so as not to bore all of you with my sentimental ramblings. We’ve got a packed day ahead of us though, with two exciting exclusives containing tracks you won’t hear anywhere else on their way (and you know one’s obviously gonna involve Bloc Party), as well as the unveiling of a very special M3 Volume 10 to round out the festivities at the end of the day. Celebrate.

Muse’s 2006 effort, Black Holes & Revelations, added them to the list of British arena-rock bands that disappointed me this year, right there in between Snow Patrol and Razorlight. First single “Supermassive Black Hole” saw the band trying to cash in on the dance-rock fad that was already well on its way out, and “Knights of Cydonia” - though the video is amazing - is a failed experiment in the epic that ultimately results in a sprawling, wandering mess. Thus, “Starlight” is the closest thing the album has to a saving grace, if you can even call it that.

You see, all “Starlight” really has is that xylophone-sounding ascending keyboard progression, and without it it’s just another droning and lifeless new Muse song, bereft of the tangible passion felt in older material like “New Born” and “Time Is Runnin Out”. That said, the progression is quite catchy and the rest of the track listenable, dare I say enjoyable, the first few times through, but proves to grow stale within a few days’/weeks’ time, as tracks this uninspired are wont to do.

But hey, flip it over and peep the b-side; it’s a new Phones remix! I’d actually be more interested to hear how “Starlight” sounds with a Phones touch-up, but it’s actually “Supermassive” that gets the Phones’ treatment here. It’s certainly not his best work, but any Phones remix is mildly enjoyable at worst, and at the very least it keeps the single release of “Starlight” worth mentioning.

MP3s:
“Starlight” - Muse
“Supermassive Black Hole” (Phones’ Control Voltage Mix) - Muse

And as a bonus, in case you missed it on Monday, here’s DJ Sunderland’s awesome mash up of “Supermassive” and The Spinto Band’s “Oh Mandy”, which manages to work impossibly well despite the unexpected song pairing.

Bonus MP3: “Supermassive Mandy” - The Spinto Band vs Muse

Back to England now then, to a band that anyone with UK residency and a radio has likely heard a countless times, but who most Americans are probably criminally unfamiliar with. Yes, they’re a bit of a guilty pleasure. Yes, they sound like what I’d imagine Dispatch experimenting with Britpop to sound like. And yes, they’re about as chart-friendly as it gets in the UK, but The Kooks are undeniably catchy, have a surprisingly good debut album out and two monster singles tearing up the charts over there.

The first of these two singles, “Naïve”, peaked at #5 in the UK and is an instant singalong classic. It became an unofficial summer anthem (the official honor goes to “We Are Your Friends”) among my friends this summer and even made it into our acoustic guitar around-the-campfire singalong playlist (yeah, we’re that cliché) somewhere in between such other Britpop masterpiece’s as “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and “Karma Police”. With that relentlessly catchy chorus and the herky-jerky guitar-based instrumentation, “Naïve” gets stuck in your head and straight-up sets up residence there.

Follow-up single “She Moves In Her Own Way” employs the same formula to equal success and did just as well on the charts (climbing to as high as #7), and their debut album Inside In, Inside Out, chilled at #2 for weeks in the UK, not quite topping the charts but eventually going double platinum nonetheless. Though their music isn’t terribly challenging or of overwhelming artistic merit, it remains impressive that the Kooks have achieved this level of success when not a single one of them has hit the age of 20. While I possess no high hopes for a spectacular follow-up album (I learned my lesson about expectations and chart-friendly Britpop bands with Razorlight), “Naïve” and, to a much lesser extent, “She Moves In Her Own Way” will endure as two of 2006’s essential singles.

MP3s:
“Naive” - The Kooks ((highly recommended))
“She Moves In Her Own Way” - The Kooks

I really should have posted this back in late spring/early summer when I first jumped on the Kooks’ bandwagon, as their relevance has waned recently with their singles’ departure from the charts, so here’s a little treat to keep things up to date. A testimony to the song’s status as one of the biggest hits of 2006, Lily Allen has recorded a cover of “Naïve” for release as a b-side on the upcoming re-release of her debut single, “LDN”. It’s certainly not as good as the original, but it’s still worth a listen and should pique the interest of the minions of Allen fans who are seemingly omnipresent in the blogosphere.

MP3: “Naive” - Lily Allen

I seriously waited the entire summer for TV On The Radio to release their Jon Watts-directed video for “Wolf Like Me”, primarily because the song was probably my favorite of the summer and is one of the most bad-ass tracks ever. Watts does it justice and more, creating a video that couldn’t fit the song more perfectly. The cinematography and after-effects of the clip are top notch and the 80’s b-movie horror film vibe is perfect, as is the subtle use of color and clever subcaptioned dialogue throughout.

Video: “Wolf Like Me” - TV On The Radio
Director: Jon Watts
Watch: [YouTube]
Download: [Quicktime] [iPod]

NOTE: Redskins lost. 19-16, wide right. It was painful. Let’s not talk about it. I imagine the lack of a Music Video Monday was painful for all y’all yesterday as well (or, y’know, you survived just fine without it), so to rectify that situation, I’ll be posting the two best videos I’ve seen all week here today. Here’s the first one.

The Exit have been on my radar ever since I saw them open for RX Bandits in Baltimore like two summers ago, and I’ve since had the good/coincidental luck of seeing them two more times, most recently opening for Ted Leo and those crazy Pharmacists last December in New York. They’re live show was consistently awesome and despite being but a mere three piece they bring the intensity in spades, especially on “Don’t Push”, my favorite track by the band. After seeing the Terri Timely-directed video for Bobby Birdman’s “I Will Come Again” over at Shots Ring Out, I was perusing the Terri Timely website only to find that they’d recently completed a video for the track, which is awesome. It’s reminded me of both a) how awesome the song is and b) how consistently-great the Terri Timely videos are (check them out for yourself at their website, their clip for Laura Veir’s “Galaxies” is especially awesome).

The Exit are a vocal and lyrical double threat with singers/lyricists Jeff DaRosa and Ben Brewer each offering their own sound and unique style, with the former’s lyrics leaning more towards the introspective and the latter’s offering a more bold and aggressive point of view. Brewer’s in charge on this track, and the video follows him in continuous motion as he extricates himself from a car crash and walks through a series of doors, each opening into a different scene, as he deals with lust and its repercussions. Terri Timely are proving themselves as an excellent up-and-coming team of directors, and this one only further enforces that notion.

Video: “Don’t Push” - The Exit
Director: Terri Timely: Video Band
Watch: [YouTube]
Download: [Quicktime] [iPod]
MP3: “Don’t Push” - The Exit

The many faces of Clinton Portis (clockwise from right to left): Sheriff Gonna Getcha, Southeast Jerome, Dr. I Don’t Know and Dollah Bill. What an incredible human being.

Unfortunately, Music Video Monday has to be postoponed today as I’m leaving UVA immediately after classes end to get back to DC in time to make it to tonight’s Monday Night Football opener. You see, yesterday was good and all (both the Cowboys and Giants went down), but for me the NFL season doesn’t truly begin until tonight when Clinton Portis (all 93.9% of him) and my Washington Redskins take on the Vikings tonight at FedEx Field in DC. Despite a poor-ass preseason performance, the Threatening Trio (lamest nickname ever?) - comprised of Portis, Santana Moss, and the amazing Chris Cooley - returns supported by an impressive cast of newcomers (Brandon Lloyd, Antwaan Randle El, T.J. Duckett, et. al), set to build on last year’s postseason success.

Why should non-Skins fans care? Because Clinton Portis just might be the greatest human being in America. As can be seen above, Portis would show up for his weekly interviews (which would be subsequently broadcast on Redskins.com) last season fully costumed as one of his consistently-evolving alter-egos. My personal favorite character was Southeast Jerome (bottom right, above), but after his initial mid-season appearance we learned of his untimely and tragic death. Fortunately though, in Portis’ we got to check back in with SE Jerome late in the season when Portis came dressed as the angel of Southeast Jerome “in heaven with friends”. In his best masquerade yet, the angel of Southeast Jerome brought along some of his friends:

• Rock Cartwright as “Luscious”
• Robert Royal as “Pretty Teeth”
• Ryan Clark as “Pied Piper Piccalo”
• Nehemiah [”It’s Already Been”] Broughton as “Biggie Short”
• Ladell Betts as “Sweet Feet Jenkins”
• and the best ever: Chris Cooley as “Johnny White Guy”

Clearly, that list alone is enough of a reason to root for the Redskins to win the Superbowl. Portis’ stunts have been well-documented over at Deadspin.com, where they have an entire archive of Portis’ antics, they’ve even inducted him into the Deadspin Hall of Fame with a fancy plaque (visible above, at right) and everything.

Now that that’s out of my system, here are some actual music referrals and downloadable goods. First of all, check out this band, Optimist Club. Though I’ve not gotten a chance to familiarize myself with their material yet (Drowned In Sound describes their music as “mercilessly shredded guitars and acerbically intelligent vocals”), how much do these guys look exactly like Bloc Party only with a goofier, more cartoony version of Kele? It’s ridiculous. They’ve gotta be worth checking out for that reason alone, hit up their MySpace for tracks.

Next, make sure to get over to GvB and grab that new Sufjan track, “Sister Winter”, off of his upcoming Songs For Christmas album. To be honest, I’m really not trying to listen to Christmas songs in September, but I gave this song one listen and it’s just so good. The way it plods along for the first half before building up into that incredible crescendo at the end and just embodies the feeling of the perfect Christmas song? Dude is unbelievable.

Finally, here’s the freshest mash-up I’ve heard in a minute, courtesy of some guy on OiNK named Sunderland, whose taken the “Oh Mandy” and transplanted that discoteque-worthy “Supermassive Black Hole” beat on it, taking both tracks to new levels off awesomeness. The vocals even work pretty well, though there are moments when I wish this were kept as a Supermassive Remix of “Oh Mandy”, as the main attraction here is less the interaction of the vocals of the two tracks, but the way the “Supermassive” beat works so surprisingly-well with The Spinto Band’s original track.

MP3: “Supermassive Mandy” - The Spinto Band vs. Muse

I’ll be sure to make up for the lack of Music Video Monday with video content sprinkled throughout my posts for the rest of the week, but for now there are more important issues - namely the Redskins dominance over the rest of the NFL - at hand.