Happy New Year's!

Happy New Year's to everyone, and I hope folks are having/will have a great time tonight.
Here's New Year's Eve in Times Square back in 1984/5 with Lily Tomlin hosting.



The Knife -New Year's Eve [divshare] [SF]
This song is off the original soundtrack that The Knife did for the movie Hannah Med H.

Holy Birthday, Batman!

So, this is the awkward time of year, where my birthday is lumped in with Chanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, Christmas Eve, Russian Orthodox Christmas, probably some saints' days, and, most likely, a national holiday in Swaziland or somewhere like that. I've been back in Maine for over a week now, and really enjoying it. There's been a lot of snow, which has meant skiing, snowshoeing, and (unfortunately) shoveling. But I've even managed to miss shoveling while down at school.

Yesterday, or more accurately two days ago, was my 21st birthday, so finally, after years of drinking illegally, I'm allowed to imbibe without fear of legal repercussions. Really, I don't feel that different, since I've been buying booze and going to bars for about five years now, but it takes a little bit of stress away, although some of the adventure is gone too. In any case, it was a good excuse to see friends, many of whom I haven't seen in a couple years, since I've been abroad during the summers and many school vacations. So, in celebration of the occasion, and my other friends who've had birthday's recently, here's the track that Royksopp just dropped recently for free in their return from an all-too-long hiatus.

Royksopp - Happy Birthday [divshare]

I've also got a holiday gift from Minnesota mixmaster Dom Terrace that he's put out as Asphalteater, which, in my opinion, is a pretty sweet name. It's a hilarious remix of the song from Subway's "Five Dollar Footlong" commercials. Also, check out Dom's track 'Simple,' which is by far one of my favorite songs of 2008. You can get all his tracks on his website, and I definitely recommend all of them. Happy holidays, and keep on rocking!

Asphalteater - Five Dollar Footlong [divshare]
Dom Terrace - Simple [divshare]

SNL Has Rocked My Socks

Seriously, if you have not yet seen this, watch it. I've watched it about 5 times in the last two days. So juvenile, so funny. The Timbaland impression toward the end is spot on and too hilarious.

Cassius Classicus

Photo from Al Gore Please Save Us


I'm back in Maine once again (luckily after the worst effects of the weekend's ice storm have worn off) after a month of almost non-stop work, trying to finish up my thesis and other papers. Almost don't know what to do with myself now that I have a free month. Well, I should be working on job stuff/preparations for next year, but that wouldn't be much fun. I'll get my ass in gear with that later this week.
But, in the meantime, it's a chance for some glorious inactivity and catching up with my family and friends up here. I got in some used CD hunting at Cutler's down in New Haven a few weeks ago, and am just starting to explore more of what I've got my hands on. I've always had a few Cassius tracks kicking around my computer from a phase when I downloaded a bunch of French Touch, '90s dance music (like those robot-suit dudes from that Kanye video), but Id never gotten a full album. Now I've got two of them (click links to see/buy), '1999' and '15 Again.' They're both full of great tracks, and the jazzy edge to them is a refreshing break from the pounding bass and distortion of bangers or and the synths that, much as I love them, are in every goddamn song these days.
One song that I find myself listening to over and over is 'Toop Toop' off of '15 Again.' The lyrics don't make a hell of a lot of sense, but hey, Cassius is two French guys, so that's certainly forgivable, and the track itself is just ridiculously catchy. I've also got two remixes, one by The Anarchitects, who I can't find much on, and the other by Brooklyn-based Streetlab, who have loads of remixes available for free on their MySpace. Also, check out Cassius's MySpace, especially the first track in the player, 'Keep on Running.'

Cassius - Toop Toop [divshare]

This one has a little more of a garage sound, with the snare that gets it going at the beginning.
Cassius - Toop Toop (The Anarchitects remix) [divshare]

Cassius - Toop Toop (Streetlab remix) [divshare]

James Murphy and Kermit the Frog Do New York

This is absolutely awesome. James Murphy/LCD Soundsystem decided to do a music video for 'New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down,' off of Sound of Silver and brought on board everyone's favorite melancholy Muppet, Kermit the Frog. There are lots of good city shots and Kermit is perfect for the part, based on his previous works, 'The Rainbow Connection' and 'It's Not Easy Being Green,' which I can only guess was why he was chosen in the first place.

LCD Soundsystem - New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down [divshare]



The Rainbow Connection


It's Not Easy Being Green

Putting in Work

While I'll never be quite as efficient as I'd like with my time, today/yesterday was another productive one, and I'm feeling really good about my senior thesis at this point. The work isn't going to stop really for the next two weeks, then it will be a magical month of vacation. But, there are three other papers between me and that freedom, so it's time to put in my work and get shit done.

Speaking of putting in work, Gang Starr and Big L knew something about that (it's sad and kind of funny thatBig L has been dead since 1999, but he still has a Myspace page). I haven't posted much hip hop/rap on here yet, but this is one of my all-time favorite songs. Support Big L's estate by picking up one of his albums here.

Gang Starr and Big L - Work [divshare]

One of my favorite rappers of this past year has been Washington DC's Wale, who came out with his killer '100 Miles and Running' mixtape, which you can download for free thanks to the links put up here by Get Right Music.

Wale - Work [divshare]