What I'm Listening To

So 2009 is about a month deep at this point and there's not much other than the new Animal Collective and the Bon Iver EP that I've enjoyed.

-The new Andrew Bird is pleasant, but nothing special
-Antony and his voice do not mesh well with me
-Never been a huge Franz Ferdinand fan and so far my opinion is unchanged
-Late of the Pier album has a few good songs, but overall it sounds too campy, a bit cheesy, and it lacks substance.

I'm waiting for something to grab my attention. I streamed the new M. Ward (here) and much like the Bird disc, it was pretty, but nothing that captured my attention. Two upcoming releases I am excited about are the new ...And You Will Know Us disc due in early February as well as the Neko Case cd coming in March which I am very super pumped for.

Anyways, what do I do when nothing recent captures my interest? I dig back a bit. So here's what I've been playing the last few days. I'm on a mixtape/world music type binge:

Various Artists- Slumdog Millionaire OST








I suppose this is pretty current. See the movie first. AR Rahman, famed Bollywood music producer, delivers the goods here. Dancehall/electro/world/reggaeton type stuff, plus M.I.A. gets in on the action.



Wale- The Mixtape About Nothing and 100 Miles and Running










Pronounced WAH-lay, this DC rapper is seriously impressive. Closest comparison would be Black Thought, who he also credits as his favorite lyricist. Metaphors that hurt your brain delivered with a rolling swag. He's an ambitious dude too. The Mixtape About Nothing gathers its central theme from Seinfeld. No seriously, it does. And it works. Snippets of famous show audio are spliced in throughout and the over-arching themes of the series and some of its particularly notable episodes provide inspiration for the content in his verses. It shouldn't work, but it does. Peep the album cover.


Santogold and Diplo- Top Ranking and M.I.A. and Diplo- Piracy Funds Terrorism











Couple of badass mixtapes by Diplo primarily featuring two female artists often considered parallel with one another. Reggaeton, dancehall, new wave, and club rap songs are mixed in and remixed with Santogold's selftitled disc and M.I.A.'s Arular. Good for dance parties if you happen to have a world cuisine themed gathering. If you hold meetings of the model UN in your basement such tunes would also be appropriate. Actually, no they wouldn't. At all. Driving a dune buggie through the jungle with dual subwoofers. That's better.

Enjoy.