A Band of Bees - Listening Man

5 Years Time

This song makes me smile.

Mystery Song - Sweet Dogs

I was playing my iPod yesterday, and this song was mysteriously in my purchased list. No idea how it got there. It's not that I wouldn't purchase it; it's that I didn't purchase it. But I like it.

Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone

Arcade Fire: Neon Bible Interactive Video

[via Computerlove]Click Image to View Video

Mah Nà Mah Nà

Lately, there has been a rash of commercials and television references to the Mah Nà Mah Nà song. And I can't help it: I sing it all day long. But the history of the song is pretty amazing.

It was written and originally performed by Piero Umiliani, but it has since appeared in several venues that injected it into the collective unconscious. Take these two (nearly identical) puppet performances:

The Muppet Show:


Sesame Street:


Here's the original version (my favorite):




Here's the band Cake doing Mah Nà Mah Nà "For The Kids":



Now consider that Mah Nà Mah Nà, according to Wikipedia, "debuted as part of Umiliani's soundtrack for the Italian softcore pornography movie Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso (Sweden, Heaven and Hell) (1968), a pseudo-documentary film about wild sexual activity and other behavior in Sweden ("Mah Nà Mah Nà" accompanied a scene set in a sauna). A soundtrack album, "Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso" was released in 1968. The movie was also released under the English title Sweden Heaven and Hell."

These are the kinds of sketchy Wikipedia details that one hopes are wonderfully invented.

While we consider this possibility, let's listen to Piero Umiliani's song, "Crepuscolo Sul Mare (Twilight On the Sea)":

Dave Grohl - Stairway To Heaven

Fort Knox Five

I came by Fort Knox Five on Pandora yesterday. Their music reminds me of David Holmes, who did the music for Ocean's 11, 12, 13 (and most other George Clooney movies). The tunes make me want to sip martinis and dance in some sort of Latin fashion, but I'll spare myself the embarrassment.

Try "Brazilian Hipster".

Sleepy Tunes

For a moment this morning, just after I woke up, I could recall the details of a dream I had last night. It involved several unrecognizable friends hiding in big barrels of rainwater that sat just below the awnings of a large Spanish villa that I had the feeling we were trying to break into.

I love songs that remind me of that brief period each morning when these types of images seem to have context:

Peter Von Poehl - The Story of Impossible:


Massive Attack - Teardrop:


Hello Tomorrow - Music by Karen Orzolek of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs:

Alt Rap Friday

I read an article in Rolling Stone once about the lead singer of Weezer and the reclusive hiatus he took from music in the late '90s. He said that he was working on a mathematical equation to explain why Nirvana's songs were so good. I know a lot of people who regard Weezer pretty highly, but that sounds like crazy-talk to me. However, since reading that article, I've begun to think of some elements of songs that draw me in. I like drums; give me a great break beat, and I'm usually sold on the song (such are my blind spots).

But with rap, so much of the mainstream music is formulaic. Usually, all it takes to get me to listen is a break from the norm: clever lyrics, a perspective other than that of a thug (although that can be fun sometimes, too), or videos that remind me of The Benny Hill Show, and I'm there:

QT

Radiohead: Welcome to the Machine

I've just started Tim Footman's book, Radiohead: Welcome to the Machine: OK Computer and the Death of the Classic Album, and, so far I'm loving being able to read it and sync up my iPod to listen to each song as he makes reference to it.

I'll review the book once I've finished it, but until then, here's the entire album as can only be found on YouTube:

1. Airbag:

2. Paranoid Android:

3. Subterranean Homesick Alien:

4. Exit Music (For a Film):

5. Let Down:

6. Karma Police:

7. Fitter Happier:

8. Electioneering:

9. Climbing Up The walls:

10. No Surprises:

11. Lucky:

12. The Tourist:

Alt-Rap Friday

Brother Reade - Like Duh

To me, this song seems like a great guidebook to being cool. It doesn't matter if you're a little pasty, or if you've got creepy glasses and a habit of staring. Just be the *#@! you.

QT - U2B

Busdriver - Avantcore



I dunno what this guy's talking about most of the time, but it sure sounds good.

QT - U2B

Justice - Dance

Schoolhouse + hipster rock + funk = Justice - Dance:

Traveller

I haven't done a lot of traveling, really. I washed dishes at the bottom of the earth, and it took a trip through New Zealand to get there. But before that I had only been to another country once.

Yet I have a map of the world on my wall, and there are pushpin flags that mark the places I'd like to go someday. And when I go there, I know the songs I'd like to hear.

• Air - Universal Traveler:

mp3

• Talvin Singh - Traveller (Kid Loco's Once Upon a Time in the East Mix):

mp3

• Zero 7 - Spinning:

Music in Antarctica

When I arrived in Antarctica, on August 25th, 2004, I was lost. I had just taken an unplanned semester off from school. I had just returned home from a two-week road trip up the Eastern Seaboard. I barely slept at all during my two days in New Zealand. The next day was my birthday.

And there I was, working my first 10-hour shift of a six-month contract to wash dishes in arguably the remotest place on earth.

The first night, I laid on my bed and listened to this song, over and over and over. It is a perfect soundtrack for nighttime on the ice. Everything is quiet and deadly cold. And all you have with you, in the end, is your thoughts. (And, hopefully, an iPod.)

• Singtree by Orgship:

mp3

Monster Mashups

A few years back, I bought Jay-Z's Black Album, and, well, I fell in love. It is, to this day, one of my favorite albums, and, if you ask me, his best.

Then I heard about the Grey Album. I downloaded. I listened. I paused.

To be truthful, I didn't get it.

The cadence of one song didn't seem to match with the other, and because I was so familiar with both albums, I couldn't break away from the expecting the same breaks and lyrics. My reaction to it made me feel disconnected and old.

However, YesButNoButYes, one of my favorite sources for online miscellany, published a list of mashups, and I went on a mashup walkabout. The product of my jaunt was a short list of mashup gems (click on links to listen):

How about a mashup of Grease and Snoop?

1. Disfunctional DJ - You're the One That I want in the Next Episode

(My favorite part is where Olivia Newton John says, "Better shape up... 'Cause I need a man" and someone shouts "SNOOP DOGG!")

2. Arty Fufkin - Crazy Logic (crazy-slow download speeds)

This mashup is the one that made me believe in the theory. These two songs are like peanut butter and chocolate.

3. DJ Axel - Real Back Poppin'

This mashup made two intolerable songs sound oh-so-good.

4. Party Ben - Hung Up On Soul

A good attempt at making Madonna's music even more melodramatic.

Someone once told me that it's impossible to think of one song and remember another. These artists not only disprove that thought, but they seem to have some sort of intentionally dual-channel mental jukebox. I'd like to dub it "audible synesthesia."

Quality Content

There are four music links on the margin of SunDust : Music: PitchFork, which closely aligns with my taste in new music, Obtusity, a quality music video blog, Aurgasm, an interesting mp3 blog with legal downloads, and Antville, an open-source billboard of music videos. Sidenote: I will try my best to fill this space with original content, but these four pages are done really well, and I will probably defer to them quite a bit.