2010-08-29

Saigon Sunday

New Order is one of my all time favourite bands. This song came up on rotation the other day, and it definitely had a different poignancy to it than ever before... one of those "this song is speaking to me right now!" moments.
Sure, the lyrics are clumsy and silly at times but you can never blame them for having a lack of heart.

Video/track from YouTube:


And this is the real video here, New Order with the cast of Baywatch. Yup. It's real. Note: the audio has been disabled by the fat cats at WMG. I wonder if that's the truth, or they just didn't want you watching this piece of crap. I know it's real cause it's on the New Order DVD.

2010-08-27

MuchMusic rockin' it with Lights

Here's an image spot for MuchMusic featuring Canadian indie-electro-pop artist Lights, with sound design by yours truly. Apparently the fans love it (see comments on the YouTube page). Thanks kids!

Greg Calbi on loudness and mastering

Worth a watch, the renowned mastering engineer talks a bit about the absurdness of'level wars'.



[Recordingformation]

2010-08-06

Kanye West samples King Fucking Crimson

Video: Kanye West – Power



Kanye is no stranger to sampling seminal 70s rock acts, just look to Graduation, when he sampled kosmische kings Can on a track with Mos Def. This takes it to the next level, as the lead single from his forthcoming album, whatever it ends up being called, takes a major sample from King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man".

Not sure what the deal is with artists sampling my favourite early 70s rock songs... but I have to say I kinda like it.

When tracks first started to surface for 808s and Heartbreak, I was definitely not a fan, then over time (likely due to overexposure) I started to dig the tracks bit by bit. It could have been the fact that I learned where a bunch of the samples on that album came from (Alan Parsons et al), but that one was a grower for sure.

This Kanye album seems to be a much different approach but still Kanye.

The cynical side of me sees him hand-picking rock geek gems and inserting them into songs in order to coast on their already defined cred, but the rock geek inside me gleefully enjoys hearing the way he's re-purposing classic tunes to reach a modern audience. I assume Crimson kingpin Robert Fripp is cool with it, as it allows him to spend more time noodling and frippertronic-ing on his guitar under black lights and have to worry less about feeding himself and paying the rent.

Final verdict: Should be fun to see how this one plays out.

PS: When the hell are we going to hear the version of "21st Century Schizoid Man" with Maynard James Keenan? Or has the Internet been lying to me all these years?

2010-08-01

Saigon Sunday



At the height of Oasis' popularity, I pretty much couldn't stand the band. I've since upgraded them to 'tolerable' status, but it's the pomposity of their whole act that really turns me off. I dig this track and a couple others though.

It might just be coincidence, but I've heard this one a lot on radio and iPods lately. So here it is!