Fuck you, 2007. Fuck me, 2008. Boom boom boom boom boom. Hugenormous superheavy fun time. Cool shit from the Lab. This is it.

DOWNLOAD: DJ Melee, "The Specialists Mix" (mp3) 
[DJ Melee at MySpace]

DOWNLOAD: Michael Savant, "Special Delivery Mix" (mp3)
[Michael Savant at MySpace]

DOWNLOAD: DJ E-Marce, "Bawston Electroshok Mix" (mp3)
[E-Marce at MySpace]

12/31/2007 10:41:57 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Reeeeee-wind: this is where we scour our back catalogue and rate our favorite-of-favorites from the tracks we debuted this year. We've mixed in mp3-of-the-weeks with a bunch of the live sessions we recorded, and thrown a few videos into the mix . . . including at least a few that we forgot to mention. (Also check out the best of thephoenix.tv over at the Phlog.)

1. Drug Rug, "Tiny People" (mp3). In our neck of the office, these guys were the breakout Boston band of the year. Our new year's resolution is to get their unbelievable live show on tape before March.

2. Queens of the Stone Age, "In the Fade (Live)" (mp3 and video). Josh Homme, unplugged? You've got to see it to believe it.

3. Medicated Kisses, "Wolf Among Lilacs" (mp3). Our pick for the breakout Boston band of 2008: imagine Beth Ditto belting Paramore-sized emo-pop hooks and you've got an idea of what this grrrl-fronted R&B/punk group is capable of. 

4. Tegan and Sara, "Back in Your Head (Live)" (mp3 and video). The sisters' acoustic session at First Act ruined The Con for us, since now we can't help but thinking of these arrangements as the "real" versions of the songs. Way better than the new-wave studio versions.

5. Peter Bjorn and John, "Young Folks (Live)" (mp3). Exclusive unplugged edition: awesome, but they need to get that whistle part on DAT or something.

6. Brand New, "Oh Comely (Live, Neutral Milk Hotel Cover)" (mp3). Definitely one of the highlights of the First Act sessions this year: Jesse Lacey stopped by and played for about 45 minutes, whipping out old shit, new shit, long stories, an Iron and Wine cover, and then this: a spot-on, note-for-note version of our all-time-favorite NMH song.

7. My Brightest Diamond, "It's Over (Roy Orbison Cover, Live at the Museum of Fine Arts)" (video). We just dragged this out of the vaults last week: from November, MBD's stunning MFA show. The power-trio format felt like early-80s post-punk -- jagged, scraping guitars; sick drummer; dub bassist. Way louder, and far more visceral, than you'd expect from her records -- and yes, she's still singing like some Martian opera queen.

8. Sprained Ankles, "Randy the Rock and Roll Pizza Wolf" (mp3). Fast food, B-movie monsters, and rock and roll: It's been too long since we had a band like this in town. All hail junk-food garage punk.

9. Rilo Kiley, "Close Call (Live)" (video). See Tegan & Sara: another case where the stripped-down versions came off way prettier than the studio recordings. We recorded these versions live at First Act on Boylston Street back in September.

10. Organ Beats, "Dan Gilbert" (mp3). Damone's Noelle LeBlanc finally got around to putting out her solo album -- and, not surprising to anyone who knows her but perhaps a bit of a shock to Damone fans, it's low-fi, psych-folkish, experimental, and morbidly beautiful in places. This was merely our favorite melody, but if you can dig up the CD-R, there's a lot more to it than pretty songs.

11. Spoon, "Black Like Me (Live)" (video). Britt and his dudes played a short, sweet three-song set for us live at First Act -- unplugged, but only barely.

12. Say Anything, "People Like You Are the Reason People Like Me Exist (Live)" (video). From last summer's Best Music Poll concert, when Mr. Bemis and co were already previewing tunes from their double-disc opus. Bonus track: from earlier this year, "Alive With the Glory Of Love (Unplugged at First Act)" (mp3)

13. Shepherdess, "Not Gonna Be There Now" (mp3). Former Fuzzy/Count Me Outs singer/guitarist Hilken Mancini stepping out as frontwoman: about time.

14. Come, "Hurricane (Live at the Middle East)" (video). Reunion of the year? We love Dinosaur, Sebadoh, Burma, and the Lemonheads as much as the next dude who graduated from college in the '90s, but this one-night-only surprise was kick-in-the-balls nasty. The pre-eminent shoulda-been-huge end-of-the-century indie-rock band, right here: if they'd re-released this song in 2007, Brokaw and Zedek would be king and queen of the Bitchfork prom.  

15. Arctic Monkeys, "Bakery" (mp3). When the Monkeys stopped by Cambridge's New Alliance studios to play this exclusive acoustic set for us, this track hadn't even come out as a b-side yet. Before you consign them to the dustbin-of-NME-hype, check out what they sound like when they're not trying to out-clever themselves.

16. Tulsa, "Fill Her In" (mp3). Carter Tanton's ever-morphing solo project keeps transmogrifying into better and better incarnations, picking up blazing national acclaim with each iteration.

17. Deadly Sins, "Unpaid Bills" (mp3). Dropkick Murphys lass meets Black Flag-loving gutterpunx; candy-cane-sweet pop punk (in the manner of Crimpshrine and early Jawbreaker) ensues.

18. Noel Heroux, "I Don't Want To Get Over You (Magnetic Fields cover)" (mp3). By now you're surely on your eleventh or so listen to Mag Fields' leaked Distortion and fingering your tix to their Valentine's Day show at the Somerville Theater. Here, Hooray for Earth's frontman angled for pole position on the opening slot with a maximum-distortion run-through of one of our favorite Merritt classics.

19. Dead Trees, "Shelter" (mp3). That'd be shelter of the "gimme" variety, as former Pavement-worshipping Cape kids transmogrified into shambolic, Stones-signifying rockists . . . who then left town at the peak of their prowess. Damn, dudes.  

20. Clouds, "New Amnesia" (mp3). The last time we saw these guys, they got so worked up that one of 'em puked onstage. We always had Adam McGrath pegged as the quiet one in Cave-In -- a position for which he had stiff competition -- but that got throroughly blown out the door when he came blitzkrieging out of the stocks with the balls-deepest, boogie-metalest album of any Cave In alumnus. Rock and roll, no control.

21. Matters & Dunaway, "Control the Night" (mp3). Micro-techno goes macro, and the drum machines take back seats to human rhythm sections -- the last people on earth we expected to join the stories ranks of Boston space-rockers would've been this niche-market duo, who were far better known in, say, Belgium than they were in the Back Bay. But this track had us reaching back for our old Lockgroove tapes in a search for the last time local dudes got this far gone.

22. Wheat, "Move=Move" (mp3). Severely slept on since they've gone innocuous, but we predict that eventually they'll have cult followings and message-board threads as long as Squeeze's. The only question is whether that'll be 20 years from now or in time for their next album.

23. Magic People, "Laundry Night" (mp3). That girl: the one in the basement you run into every week when you're Cloroxing the skid marks out of your boyshorts. She's almost as big a headcase as you, Magic Person.

24. UV Protection, "Space Elevator" (mp3). We were pretty sure that UV Pro couldn't get any more perfect than their last album, until we saw Karen getting apeshit at the DJ Assault show. C440r dudes: UV Pro Ghettotech remix, soon, plz. Thx. Until then: this.

25. Pet Genius, "Mother Fucker" (mp3). Steve Brodsky in grunge-outlaw mode, making some of his most weirdly accessible music since Cave In.

26. Brain Failure & Dicky Barrett, Coming Down To Beijing" (mp3). Answer song to Dropkick Murphys' "Coming Down To Boston" gets outsourced to mainland China, with once-and-future Bosstone playing figurative second fiddle.

27. Bloc Party, "I Still Remember (Live)" (mp3). The intimate-club version, as Mr. Collipark would call it.

28. Silversun Pickups, "Lazy Eye (Live)" (mp3). Similarity #1,094,236 between Silversun Pickups and Smashing Pumpkins: the acoustic versions are as good as the electric versions. And in this case, closer to the original version, since their hit started out as a much slower, longer affair.

29. Oxbow, "Down a Stair, Backward" (mp3). We just saw that Eugene is coming back to town to read from his fantastic Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You'd Get Your Ass Kicked For Asking. In case you didn't read it, James Parker elaborated on Eug (the Norman Mailer of Bouncer Lit) here.

30. Plain White T's, "Hey There Delilah" (mp3). Actually, we were sick of this song before we even heard it. But there are 13 year olds who need this in their life. So here it is, quiet-like, from the exclusive live session they did for us at First Act.

31. Tanya Donnelly & Girl Authority, "This is My Day" (mp3). Also for the kids: Belly/Throwing Muses mama Tanya hooks up with Rounder's answer to Kidz Bop for grrrl-powered tweenpop goodness.

32. Hats and Glasses, "Andrew" (mp3). Oddly catchy, genre-agnostic rock song matches all the requisite indie talking points. Deadpan Lou Reed-ish singer? Check. Obliquely personal lyrics? Check. Ambitiously evasive hit-and-run backing band? Yezzir. All of the preceding signifying that we know next to nothing about them but wouldn't be surprised if they showed up opening for an Arcade Fire tour or something.

33. Cold War Kids, "Hospital Beds (Live)" (mp3). The hit, as it were, from the set they played for us at First Act.

33 1/3: Aberdeen City, "Moving In Stereo (Cars Cover)" (mp3). From a charity CD, a rare stream-only treat that we never got around to posting as a download.

12/25/2007 1:02:31 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Yes, boys and girls, it’s time once again for Santastic!, the third-annual installment of holiday mix-and-mash-ups performed and compiled by the redoubtable djBC. (Fresh from snagging the BMA for “Outstanding DJ.”)

As always, this year’s edition is a corker. For kids who’ve been waiting for the red-suited man all December, Divide and Kreate’s “Velvet Santa” sets up a rendezvous between a pre-creepy Michael Jackson and a very naughty Lou Reed on some dingy New York City street. BC’s own “You Shook Me All Noel” has the Peanuts kids philosophizing over devilish Angus Young riffs, and his “A Wicked Hardcore Christmas” finds ska/punk dudes Big D and the Kids Table doing Jaeger bombs in Allston to jingle bells and swooning strings. King Of Pants “Alala Falala Hasselhoff” gets festive with the ladies from CSS and The Hoff himself. Meanwhile, DJ Flack’s “Hanukkah In Dub,” Voicedude’s “Dreidel All The Way” remind us that the holiday season is not just for the goyim.

But our pick for mash-up of the season — splendidly timed for the recent (and future?) Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham, Jr. reunion — is mojochronic’s “Yuletide Zeppelin” which seamlessly grafts all your timeless holiday favorites to Zep Set staples like “Kashmir,” “Stairway,” and “Dazed and Confused.”

It just makes too much sense: Didn’t we read in Hammer of the Gods that the band sold their souls to Santa?

 

On semi-related note: don’t forget that the New Year’s Day deadline is looming for the dj BC/Big D and the Kids Table collabo Strictly Mixed and Mashed remix contest — in which amateur bastard-pop auteurs are invited to download Big D masters and create their own chopped/screwed remixes.

More Santastic...

LISTEN: “Safety Bells “ - DJ Earlybird (MP3)
LISTEN: “Elvis Christmas Turkey“ - Go Home Productions  (MP3)
LISTEN: “Yuletide Zeppelin II “ - mojochronic (MP3)

12/21/2007 4:20:14 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

We were gonna post a Journey video but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it.

Oh, listmania, you’re like Paris Hilton holding a plate of Oreos: contradictory, slightly off-putting, and yet fascinatingly addictive. Just when we think we’re listed out, we find ourselves reading another one, and nodding enthusiastically or wondering why anyone thinks the new Band of Horses album is Top 10-worthy. The best list-related reading of the week is undoubtedly Slate’s ongoing documentation of a musical conversation between Robert Christgau, Jody Rosen, and Ann Powers. If you’ve got an hour, it’s worth reading through, but if not, here’s our favorite part: On Sunday Rosen praised Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” as the song of the year, thanks to boosts from The Sopranos and drunken karaoke-ing college kids across the US (Rosen notes that “Don’t Stop Believin’” wasn’t critically acclaimed in 1981, leading him to deduce “There's a "Don't Stop Believin'" of 2007 out there somewhere; it's probably some Nickelback song. Or maybe it's Mims”). Powers agreed (“Journey is so relevant now”), and just our heads began to spin Christgau verbally smacked some sense into everyone, via his post on Monday: “Journey sucks. They sucked in 1981, they'll suck in 2033, and they suck now. Who gives a fuck what Tony Soprano thinks?” Xgau, we love you, even though we have no idea how Soulja Boy's Souljaboytellumdotcom ended up on your Top 30 albums of ‘07 list.

List-related blog item #2: Flipping through our roommate’s copy of Blender recently and we spotted Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam at number 90 of the mag’s list of the 100 Greatest Indie-Rock albums Ever. “Way to go AC!” we thought. We might’ve picked Feels instead, but whatevs. Then we checked out Blender’s Best 25 Albums of 2007 and, amazingly, Animal Collective is not on there. Like, at all. WTF? Is Strawberry Jam so great and influential that we’re supposed to just feel it’s presence on there? Or is this a reality check that these lists - all of them, not just Blender’s - are kinda BS because (duh) it’s all a matter of (sometimes dissenting, even at the same publication) opinion. We’re not pointing fingers here - we just put the finishing touches on our best album lists, look for ‘em on the Internets soonish - but maybe Slate’s got the right idea in turning listmania into a friendly debate about musical happenings within the past year, rather than a set-in-stone, these are the best albums period, kind of thing. Or maybe that’s what Idolator’s comment section is for.

12/19/2007 3:28:31 PM by Caitlin | Comments [1] |  

The original, fluffy-haired foursome. This looks like an ad for Pert Plus.

And speaking of Led Zeppelin - which was the most recent blog post on OTD for way, way too long - sorry about that, dudes, it's been a busy few weeks over here at Phoenix HQ, and we've been mulling over, rethinking, and rewriting our lists (for top albums of the year, not for Santa) - SFJ weighed in on the reunion gig in this week's New Yorker. As you probably know, we don't always agree with what the "There's no black in indie rock" proclaimer has to say, but this week he might be dead-on. An excerpt:

"In November, the English rock band the Cult announced that it planned to tour in 2008 with a band whose name starts with an 'l' and has a 'z' in it, and rumors have floated that next summer Led Zeppelin is going to play at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, in Tennessee. This might seem like a good idea, but Led Zeppelin is a cover band now, covering its own material. Without John Bonham, the band can only sound like Led Zeppelin; it can’t be Led Zeppelin. The band should turn down the money and let its record stand. The failed gigs of the nineteen-eighties and nineties have been supplanted by a triumph, and the band should be pleased to have done Ertegun proud with such a spirited performance. I look forward to any chance I get to see Plant, Page, or Jones play live. But let the songs remain."

It's a solid point - if Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic got together with a new lead singer (Kurt Cobain's long-lost second cousin or something) to play Nirvana songs, it'd be "Nirvana," not Nirvana. Same with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr - if they ever attempted a Beatles reunion, could anyone really call it The Beatles? Yet some bands - Journey, we're looking at you - continue to assuredly identify themselves by the same name, despite shifting band rosters. Which leads us to believe that the distinction between glorified cover bands (with members of the original line-up!) and the real thing is entirely circumstantial - it depends on the band, the frequency at which band members change, and which instrumentalist leaves. It seems easier to classify a band as "authentic" when they have a new drummer, rather than, say, a new lead singer. But that sounds discriminatory (bandist? Anti-drummer?), and we'd imagine that most Led Zeppelin fans would probably argue the opposite, since losing John Bonham was monumental enough to break up the band, and they have never been/will never be the same. But it doesn’t seem to be affecting ticket sales, or album sales - tickets to the reunion gig in London were going for thousands of dollars on eBay, and NME recently reported that sales of Led Zeppelin’s back catalogue have increased by 500% since they announced the show. Maybe cover bands aren't so repugnant?

12/17/2007 3:32:19 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |  

DOWNLOAD: Ron Gill, "All Is Fair In Love/Seems So Long" [mp3]

Jazz singer Ron Gill brought uncommon interpretive insight to an under-recognized genius on The Songs of Billy Strayhorn a few seasons back. Now he's turned his attention to a less obviously jazzy songwriter, Stevie Wonder. Gill's "Wonders of Wonder" program at the Regattabar in October 2006 knocked out his old friend Jon Marable, who offered to write new arrangements. A demo that Gill has been handing out offers a taste of the results. Marable's medley of "All Is Fair in Love" and "Seems So Long" shows Gill bringing his typical intelligence, warmth, and humor to this ballad/swing pairing, making classic contemporary pop sound like jazz standards. Look for Gill to be doing a "Black Composers" program February 26 on WGBH's Eric in the Evening and at a club to be announced.

12/17/2007 11:27:06 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Fricke has the answers to all questions.

In case anyone was just dying to know how the Led Zep show went in London last night, David Fricke, the source of all rock knowledge, according to any of the Classic Albums documentaries, has posted a lengthy review on Rolling Stone's blog. An excerpt:

"As drummer Jason Bonham hammered with the ghostly precision and ferocity of his late father, guitarist Jimmy Page fired dirty chunks of Chuck Berry and bassist John Paul Jones kept iron time with familiar reserve, singer Robert Plant sang the most obvious words of the night: 'Been a long time since I rock and rolled.' Overhead, images of a much younger Zeppelin, in concert during the early and mid-Seventies, flashed on a huge digital-video screen. In those films, Led Zeppelin were the biggest, loudest and most cocksure band in rock. Jimmy Page’s now snow-white hair was still jet black; Robert Plant was a golden god, not yet a Viking elder, and the late John Bonham — whose death in 1980 abruptly ended Zeppelin’s reign — still ruled the engine room. But the band that played underneath those memories last night was not the one that misfired at Live Aid in 1985 or again in New York in 1988. This one was rehearsed, ready and out to kill. This band was Led Zeppelin in every way."

Read the full review here.

Also, people are posting videos on YouTube from the show.

12/11/2007 10:49:22 AM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |  

Mission of Burma will play Great Scott on January 20, in what will be the band's most intimate hometown performance since their first-ever reunion gig (which was itself a secret warmup gig for their official reunion shows a few nights later) at the now-defunct 608 in Somerville, six years ago to the month.

We gather the gig is a benefit in some fashion for Myanmar (the country formerly known as Burma), and we'll add details when our Googling produces something reliable. If you've got details, hit us in the comments.

Tickets go on sale HERE on December 15 at 10 am.

BREAKING NEWS: Maybe we set off someone's Google alert with this post, but we just got an email confirming that Pete Prescott's terrorifyingly awesome post-Burma band VOLCANO SUNS are amping up their reunion with plans for an extensive 2008 tour -- this time in support of a Taang! re-release of their albums The Bright Orange Years and All Night Lotus Party, neither of which have ever seen the light of a digital release. Developing...

12/10/2007 2:21:20 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

VIDEO: Christopher Guest and a bunch of bassists, "Big Bottom"

As you may have heard, Christopher Guest received an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee last Friday. The musical event that followed the ceremony was, like everything we've been to at Berklee, professional and entertaining, with Guest performing songs from This Is Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, and Waiting for Guffman alongside Berklee faculty and students. On "Big Bottom" (above) he was joined by 50 bassists as well - someone (we don't remember who, sorry!) said it was every Berklee student who considered the bass as their primary instrument. There were no appearances by any of Guest's collaborators, like Tap-mates Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, but no problem: Jon Aldrich and Ken Zembello did an outstanding job as the other two Folksmen. You can see their version of the Folksmen's "Start Me Up" cover below, along with "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight." Also, as an extra-special bonus, Elvis Costello's pre-taped tribute to Guest featured a cover of "Penny for Your Thoughts" from Waiting for Guffman. We've got the mp3.

- Ryan Stewart

VIDEO: Christopher Guest, Jon Aldrich, and Ken Zembello, "Start Me Up"


VIDEO: Christopher Guest & Co., "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight"

LISTEN: Elvis Costello, "PennyForYourThoughts" (mp3)

LISTEN: Christopher Guest's speech at Berklee (mp3)

12/7/2007 1:44:27 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Collipark's little-noticed and quickly-abandoned attempt to start a reindeer dance craze

+ 999,999 snowflakes: Ying Yang czar Mr. ColliPark releases a Christmas EP that tempts us to make comparisons to Phil Spector's "A Christmas Gift for You"

+ 87 snowflakes: Somehow pimping the minor-key melody of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" into club fire

+ 250,000 snowflakes: sparking the realization that, phrased in properly idiomatic rapper-ese, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" would sound a whole lot like "Hot in Herre"

________

total = 1,250,086 snowflakes

DOWNLOAD: V.I.C., Stan Williams, and B.O.B., "Hot" [mp3]

(Yes, that's Collipark's new dude, V.I.C., of "Get Silly" fame. And B.O.B. of "Cloud Nine" fame -- soon to be known as B.O.B. of "This Is My" fame. <--Check this, it's his new jernt for the cluurrrrrb; could be his "My Name Is.")

 

12/7/2007 1:57:09 AM by On the Download | Comments [1] |  

Eli Reed: Soul Brother Number One

DOWNLOAD: Eli "Paperboy" Reed, "The Satisfier" [mp3]

Even after tough woodshedding at Delta Blues Ground Zero -- Clarksdale, Mississippi, playing juke joints and the like -- and then further work in Chicago, running a weekly radio show and playing in a Southside holiness church, Eli "Paperboy" Reed suffered his detractors (including some at this very newspaper). But the truth is in the grooves. The kid from Brookline, now 24, is getting ready to release his second album, Roll with You, due March 8 from Q Division. On "The Satisfier," you can hear the sound that's bulldozed skeptics: the grit-and-groove from Eli's backing band the True Loves — dirty guitar, in-the-pocket rhythm section, goosy organ, rocking call-and-response horns, and female backing vocals that out-Ronson Mark Ronson — plus Eli's own testifying vocals, which smash-and-grab some of the hallmarks of house-wrecking '50s soul, including James Brown's almighty, mic-destorying "Please Please Please" scream. If half the insane rumors we hear about Eli's music future are true, then we think we know who the next Amy Winehouse is gonna be. Download the mp3, then catch the band along with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals tonight (Thursday the 6th) at the Paradise.

12/6/2007 1:23:39 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

DOWNLOAD: Gorilla Zoe feat. Neighborhood Superstars, "It's Christmas" [mp3]

+ 5 snowflakes: durrty-south interpretation of "Jingle Bells" brings new meaning to "dashing through the snow"

+ 8 snowflakes: flipping "12 Days of Christmas" as dope-boy corner pitch

+ 1,000,000 snoflakes: "When I hit the strip club I can make it reindeer."

________

total = 1,000,013 snowflakes.

12/5/2007 10:03:54 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

From a recent, daringly honest (in an intriguingly refreshing way) interview with Antiquiet, here are three reasons why we love Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme - AKA the quotes don't lie!

Reason #1: Unabashed major label hate.

"Fuck the labels man, they suck. The last thing they’re stripping down is their own expense accounts and shit. I mean, Jimmy Iovine of Interscope records takes a private jet or rides first class to tell a band they don’t get tour support. You know what I mean? Fuck that shit, I’m tired of it. And I’m not gonna be quiet because the American label, not Canada, not Europe, but our American label’s fucking us like crazy, so fuck them. Why should I not say anything, what am I afraid of? I’m not afraid of them."

Reason #2: Total opposite of PR speak about Interscope.

"I THINK OF INTERSCOPE AND ALL THESE LABELS AS THE BIGGEST FUCKING IDIOTS ON THE PLANET. And print that in capitals, because they can’t do anything to me. That’s the difference. The reason is because finally, for once, the fact that this is just their job and this is my life does a flip flop on them because they can’t stop me from being me and from playing, but they can lose their jobs and have to fucking work at Shakey’s pizza like they should’ve all along."

Reason #3: Respect for the little people.

"All the kids, like the girl that hooked us up with this interview probably does more work than Jimmy Iovine because she’s in the nuts and bolts of what goes on in Interscope. The underpaid, overworked section of Interscope. The interns and assistants and people that are starting out."

Read Antiquiet's full interview, in all its awesomeness, here.

12/5/2007 12:05:18 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |  

VIDEO: Crank Dat Santa Claus

DOWNLOAD: Eric Striffler and Kevin Spellman, "Crank Dat Santa Claus" [mp3]

+ 4 snowflakes: "watch him crank that Missus Claus"

+ 23 snowflakes: "Santa Claus up in this ho, watch me lean and watch me rock/Superman that ho, then I'll put some goodies in your sock!"

+ 100,000 snowflakes: the tragic inevitability, as Tony Kornheiser would say, of a meme brought to its ridiculous, and yet somehow satisfyingly ridiculous, conclusion.

_________

total = 100,027 snowflakes

AFTER THE JUMP: 10 MORE X-MAS VARIATIONS ON SOULJA BOY

 

12/4/2007 10:18:31 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

DOWNLOAD: Mobius Band, Friends Like These [mp3]

Lots of wistful indie bands underwent hipster-mandated retraining in the early naughts and emerged, after a quick stop in laptop voc tech, as certified dealers of . . . wistful, indie-ish compu-pop. Boston (and now Brooklyn’s) Mobius Band were among the least likely applicants for the job, and yet we can’t think of anyone, save perhaps the Postal Service, who do it better. In the (above) video for Friends like These," the first single from their new Heaven, the trio geekily overplan a dance party in their apartment and almost pull it off, except for the part at the end where they bore everyone to tears with a tour-photo slideshow. If you're not afraid of the snow, stop by their CD-release gig is tonight at the Middle East.

12/2/2007 9:18:52 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |