Smile, it's Wednesday!

Ladies and gentlemen, its Wednesday. Which means of course, we’re halfway through the week. But in case you’ve been swamped with mid-terms this week and your workload is steadily accumulating with no end in sight, here is some news for you that’ll hopefully make the rest of the week go faster.

Best. Mashups. Ever. Those were the three words that spilled out of my mouth after listening to the tracks posted on A Plus D’s MySpace. The San Francisco duo consists of Adrian and the Mysterious D, and their mashups ingeniously pair songs that you might not expect together. Kanye’s “Gold Digger” and Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony”? Genius. Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and the obviously Joy Division-inspiredShe Wants Revenge’s “Tear You Apart”? Slightly more predictable, but good nonetheless. But the standout, and probably the best mashup I’ve heard in recent months, is “Stardust Kids”. Can you guess what two tracks that might combine? I’ll save you the guessing and tell you that it takes David Bowie’s classic “Lady Stardust” and layers it on top of the beat from MGMT’s “Kids”. In other MGMT-related news, apparently they get played on commercial radio these days. Who knew? Certainly not me, as I’ve been living under a rock the last few months as far as commercial radio is concerned.

Speaking of hope for commercial radio, I recently discovered Alan Cross and his The Ongoing History of New Music program (which you can download for free as podcasts on iTunes) while fiddling with the stereo dial at work, which features some pretty damn good music. Thanks to Cross, I was tipped off to Dublin’s Fight like Apes and this story about a false scare in a Memphis airport as the result of a This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb sticker. You can listen to new episodes on Sunday nights at 8pm on Toronto’s 102.1 FM The Edge. Cross was recently interviewed in an article about fighting Internet piracy, which you can read here.

All you club kids out there, get out your glowsticks and prepare your most ridiculous outfits, because the club show to end all club shows is coming to Toronto in April. Ticket prices and whether or not this show is going to be all-ages or not have yet to be officially confirmed, but according to Dim Mak Records’ website, the lineup set to appear (and surely sellout) at The Guvernment on April 9th includes Steve Aoki, Crookers, The Bloody Beetroots and MSTRKRFT. In the words of the immortal Barney Stinson, this show has massive potential to be legen-wait for it-DARY.

Beck has a new B-side off the soon-to-be-released deluxe edition of Modern Guilt, a stripped-down tune called “Necessary Evil”, which reminds me a lot of his little-heard “Mexico”. Listen to the track here.

Here’s a show you don’t want to miss: The Coast, The Diableros, Oh No Forest Fires! and Ryan Masters are playing at The Horseshoe this Saturday. Four awesome acts for ten bucks – it doesn’t get much better than that. I have to say I’ve been listening to the new ONFF! album, The War On Geometry lately, and if you want to hear a great garage rock album with pop sensibilities and catchy hooks then I’d seriously recommend it.

Halfway through the week everyone, we can make it!

Cheers,
Max