Lupe Fiasco – “Fire”

Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before? Danger Mouse has (illegally, nonetheless) sampled The Beatles for his stellar Grey Album, M.I.A.’s mega-hit “Paper Plane” ripped off The Clash’s “Straight To Hell”, and just recently we added friggin’ Bob Dylan to the list of greats that have been sampled. Yet the catalog of one of the greatest guitarists of the Sixties and one of the most iconic musicians of all-time, Jimi Hendrix, has been mostly ignored by artists, bands and DJs too lazy to write a hook, chorus or even song by themselves. Until now that is. And why not? This is the man who wrote “Purple Haze”, smashed and lit his guitar on fire during the legendary Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, almost single-handedly made the Fender Stratocaster, and died after choking on his own vomit after drinking too much red wine (it’s true, look it up), among other achievements – no one can question his status as a musical legend. And who better to sample him then Chi-Town rapper Lupe Fiasco, who borrows from Hendrix’s “Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire” and spits some furious lines. This is supposed to be a new track off Lupe’s third – and final? – album, Lasers, which is due out on December 15th. Fair warning: Fiasco’s “Superstar” (with that buttery-smooth hook from Matthew Santos – it gets me everytime!) was one of my favourite songs of the summer, and I’d listen to it on repeat while in the car driving to work. This one is pure…well, you know. Get it here and check out the site for Lasers here.

N.E.R.D. feat. Santigold – “Soldier”

Note to Santigold and Pharrell Williams: guys, what took so friggin’ long? I feel like that this collaboration was long overdue, but hey, better late than never. I’ve never been a huge fan of N.E.R.D.; I share the sentiment with many that Pharrell is a far better producer than a rapper, but I’ve been on the Santigold bandwagon from since day one (and before she had an “i” in her name). Yet, this works: a crazy, sped-up electro beat, Chad Hugo’s baritone saxophone, and Ms. White’s funky “I don’t what they told you, I am a soldier baby” hook Destiny Child’s “Soldier” ain’t got nothing on these guys), all before Pharell comes in to put the track over the top, spastically rapping about (what else?) crazy fans. To quote Santi herself, this song is in fact the musical equivalent of “a pack of Red Bull” – and there’s not a damn thing wrong with that. “Soldier” has been in existence for almost a year now – there’s a version out there with a Lil Wayne verse – but now that’s its properly making the rounds, it appears that this is going to be the first single of N.E.R.D.’s upcoming fourth album, Instant Gratification. This album is due out next year, and the trio (Williams, Hugo and Shay Hayley) recently have added a fourth member to the group, a female singer named Rhea.

Lil Wayne – “Run This Town (Freestyle)” and “D.O.A. (Freestyle)”

Well it was only a matter of time before the po-po caught up to Lil Wayne for gun-related charges, and it looks like the rapper is going to headed away to the slammer for at least a year. But Weezy isn’t going away on this forced “hiatus” without a bang. First he hooked up with Weezer, to record a few lines on their new song, the ridiculously goofy (and not entirely in a good way) “Can’t Stop Partying”. This week the rapper dropped a new mixtape, Low Ceilings, and surprise! – its actually good. Unlike his last few mixtapes, which were full of half-assed Cash Money posse tracks and Wayne’s “pseudo-rockstar” bullshit, Low Ceilings features honest-to-goodness rapping and some nifty freestyles. The man evens manages to make “I Gotta Feeling” sound good, for god’s sakes. I can’t decide which one of Wayne’s two freestyles over Jay-Z tracks I prefer – “Run This Town” is classic aggressive Wayne, while “D.O.A.” has a Fred Durst jab and leaves Jay’s “I might send this to the mixtape Weezy” line from the original at the end. These are the kind of songs and freestyles that will continue to have people wanting birthday cakes in the shape of this guy’s head. Get the full mixtape here.

Mando Diao – “Dance With Somebody (The Hood Internet Remix feat. GZA and Cadence Weapon)”

No doubt, somebody is going to leave a comment on one of these Tuesday Twelve pieces soon, saying, “Gee Max, you sure are good looking (this part is purely hypothetical of course), but don’t you think you’ve featured enough songs with GZA on your weekly list?” To which I will reply with this: whenever GZA stops making songs or guest-vocalling that aren’t awesome, will be the day that I stop featuring him on the Tuesday Twelve. For some reason, I was also confusing Spanish world music troubadour Manu Chao with Swedish new wave garage-rockers Mando Diao, for no apparent reason. The original song is from the later; and Chicago’s finest mashup kings, The Hood Internet, transform the soulful original into a haunting, soul-bearing meditation like only GZA can. The man is forty-six years-old and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime. Nice to see Edmonton’s own Rollie Pemberton, aka Cadence Weapon, also on the track and on pointe with his verbiage as usual. Listen to the track via Pitchfork here.

Johnny Cash – “Ring of Fire (Black Rob and Obie Trice Remix)”

Why yes, I do have both The Best Of Johnny Cash and Obie’s debut album, Cheers, on my iTunes. This stellar mashup comes courtesy of The Eh! Team – an offshoot of the Team Canada DJs – which consists of four DJs: Toronto’s DJ Jr. Flo, Ottawa’s DJ Illo, Calgary’s DJ Pump, and Vancouver’s DJ Hedspin. Sounds confusing? Well it isn’t really – its just a bunch of guys that got together and having been making some incredible remixes and mashups. Here’s my philosophy on mashups: any idiot can take two popular songs, stitch them together on Garage Band, maybe throw in a few generic club beats for good measure, upload to the Internet and hope that other idiots drool over it enough to get it on Hype Machine’s “Popular” list (Nothing against Hype Machine – in fact, that’s how I found this track – but c’mon guys: a Notorious B.I.G./Miley Cyrus mashup entitled “Party And Bullshit (In The U.S.A Remix)”? Not interested!). No, truly great mashup DJs, make you look at a song (or songs differently) in a different light, whether its by finding different emotions in the source material or just pairing artists that you’d never imagine together sounding good in a million years. That’s why this one works so well: it pairs an unimpeachable classic from the Man In Black with Slim Shady Records also-ran Obie Trice’s gangster tale,“The Set-Up”, and somehow it manages to work. Listen to it, and more from the Team Canada DJs crew, here.

Hawkins – “Jesus Christ Walks (Kanye West vs. Brand New Mashup)”

Seeing Girl Talk live in September aside, this is the best mashup that I have heard in the past three months. I don’t really know who this Hawkins fellow is, but I have to tip my proverbial hat to him, because this pairing of Kanye’s “Jesus Walks” and Brand New’s “Jesus Christ” is simply ingenious. I don’t what more I can say about this, other than go listen to it here.

La Roux – “In For the Kill (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey Remix)”

File this one under the “bands that I have recently gotten into half a year after they became popular” category. I don’t know how I missed checking out this British duo; for weeks in late-August you couldn’t scroll through a blog without bumping into a glowering review or some remix of the newest La Roux single, but I’m glad I finally did and now I am making up for lost time. La Roux is singer Eleanor “Elly” Jackson – a firecracker with an androgynous David Bowie-haircut raised on folk before discovering rave music – and snyth player and co-producer Ben Langmaid. Their self-titled debut album, which was released this summer, is full of danceable, snyth-heavy electro-pop tunes that make no concessions to hide the duos’ musical influence: the 80s. If you thought Madonna peaked with “Like a Virgin”, if you always choose A-ha’s “Take On Me” when it comes your turn at Dance Dance Revolution, or even if you just always got a kick of the 80s synth-pop bands in your father’s vinyl collection with funny names (A Flock of Seagulls and Yazoo, I’m looking in your direction), you owe it to yourself to check out La Roux. On this reworked version of “In For the Kill”, U.K. producer Skream goes all dubstep on the track, resulting in a remix that is guaranteed to make people lose their minds on the dancefloor.

Tegan & Sara – “Alligator”

And speaking of angular haircuts (What? Was that a bad segue? I don’t think so), everyone’s favourite Canadian lesbian twin-sister duo (actually, come to think of it, that’s a pretty slim category), Tegan and Sarah Quin, are back with a new album. Its been two years since The Con, and other than Tegan’s one-off guest vocals on Florida punks Against Me!’s “Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart” (which if you haven’t heard yet, I’d advise you to give it a listen), fans have been clamoring for new material from the duo. Luckily for Tegan & Sara fans everywhere, it’s back to business with their third album, entitled Sainthood. Once again, the band’s not-so-secret weapon is Death Cab For Cutie producer Chris Walla (who has some explaining to do if he had anything with that “Meet Me At the Equinox” drivel trying to pass as a Death Cab song on the New Moon soundtrack), who layers on the effects and tinkling xylophones on this song. This song is just crying out for someone to remix it – MSTRKRFT maybe? The Quins will be embarking on a pretty extensive Canadian tour starting in Victoria on December 21st, and playing two dates in Toronto, Jan. 19th at Massey Hall and Jan. 20th at the Kool Haus.

Girls – “Lust For Life”

Yes, its a terrible name for a band. Yes, its an ironic name, and the band consists of four skinny white guys from San Fransisco. No, this song isn’t a Iggy Pop cover. Any other questions? Imagine Brian Wilson having a baby with Elvis Costello, and that baby making some melancholic pop songs, and you have an idea what Girls’ music sound likes. On “Lust For Life”, lead singer Christopher Owen sings about the finer things in life: girls, beach houses and pizza, with a wistful sense of longing. Fun fact: Owens was once a member of the Children of God cult. Does this mean bands fronted by former cult members are going to be the new trend in 2010? If so, I can’t wait to hear the music those Scientologist kooks dream up. Girls will be in Toronto at El Mo on November 10th.

Karen O and the Kids – “Love Is All”

So there’s this little movie that came out called Where The Wild Things Are. Perhaps you’ve heard about it? Its based on an increasingly successful children’s book written by some writer named Maurice Sendak, and the film adaptation is directed by some guy named Spike Jonze, from a screenplay by Jonze and some other guy named Dave Eggers. Does that ring any bells? With Eggers’ and Jonze’s names attached, you know this one is going to be popular with the hipsters, even if Urban Outfitters and even “higher-couture” outlets hadn’t released limited-edition WTWTA clothing lines. All kidding aside, the movie also has one hell of a soundtrack, helmed by none other than Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O. For this project, Karen O also rounded up a venerable who’s who of the indie rock world as her backing band, including bandmates Brian Chase and Nick Zinner, Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox, Liars’ Aaron Hemphill, The Dead Weather’s Dean Fertita, and Jack Lawrence from The Raconteurs (whew!). The result is a stripped-down, upbeat, sing-along with a children’s choir and Karen O chanting “L-O-V-E, it’s a mystery”. Sure she’s written deeper and more interesting songs, but damnit if this song doesn’t tug at your heartstrings. This ought to be a shoo-in for a Best Soundtrack nomination at the next Oscars.

Graham Wright – “Crooked Moon”

Sure, I could talk about how slack Tokyo Police Club have been about getting into the studio to record the follow-up to Elephant Shell, and how they’d rather Tweet about the Leafs (How are they doing this year? Oh, that’s right…) and other bands, or how I was completely given an undeserved death-glare from lead singer Dave Monks on the street a few weeks ago. But why do that, when I have this absolutely gorgeous new song from TPC’s keyboardist and vocalist Wright to share with you? According to Wright, this song was written on the spur of a moment after attending a friend’s wedding. A lo-fi and uncomplicated guitar ditty, its nice to see that Wright is not letting his daytime job in TPC stop him from doing his own thing. Listen to “Crooked Moon” and some of the keyboardist’s other songs, under the alias The Lakes of Alberta, here.