M.I.A.

M.I.A. – “Space Odyssey”

After not putting out an album last year – therefore leaving some room for other artists and bands on year-end best album lists – M.I.A. is back to business as usual, working on the follow-up to 2008′s wildly successful Kala. But even though she hasn’t put out any new material lately, the outspoken singer-songwriter has been anything but quiet. Last week she sent ripples through the Twitter-sphere (is that recognized as an official word yet?) when she blasted the New York Times (“FUCK NEW YORK TIMES!!!” in all-caps), after the paper ran an article about Sri Lanka being the number one travel destination in 2010. More interestingly though, a day later, she posted a video with her dancing in green astral lights to what sounded like a new song. Originally titled “THERES SPACE FOR OL DAT I SEE”, shortly after it was confirmed that this song is called “Space Odyssey”, and it will appear on the singer’s yet-to-be-titled upcoming album. If you were expecting another “Paper Planes” though, you can guess again: Maya marches to no one’s expectations but her own. Imagine Bjork and dubstep (the track is produced by the U.K. dubstep extraordinaire Rusko) having a baby together, throw in a typically nonsensical chorus (“My lines are down and you can’t call me”), and you get some idea of what “Space Odyssey” sounds like. If this is what the future sounds like, count me in.

Vampire Weekend – “Diplomat’s Son”

I’m going to be completely honest: I think Vampire Weekend are completely overrated. While their self-titled debut album – which is hard to believe its been two years since it came out -was pretty stellar, I think the band jumped the shark the day “Oxford Comma” (which, granted, is a pretty catchy tune) appeared in that episode of How I Met Your Mother. However in the interest of fairness, I decided to give the band’s sophomore effort a listen, to see if they could bottle lightning a second time. And I’m going to disagree with pretty much every single music critic, and the editor-in-chief of this here website herself, when I say (again, being completely honest) that Contra doesn’t particularly excite me. There’s nothing nearly as addictive as “A-Punk” or “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” here, and though people are calling this a more “mature” sound from the band, I can’t help but feel all the songs just all generally sound the same. There is one bright spot on this album for me though – “Diplomat’s Son” which slyly samples M.I.A.’s Bollywood ode “Jimmy” into a breezy, almost six-minute-long jam with enough musical twists and turns to keep the listener hooked. Even after Googling this song’s lyrics, I still have no idea what the fuck Ezra Koenig is singing about, but that’s not the point. The point is that this song goes perfectly with a drink in-hand and a hammock to lie in. And that’s about all that I can ask from a Vampire Weekend song.

jj – “Ecstasy” and “My Way”

Speaking of unlikely samples… The mysterious Swedish duo jj caught a lot of people off-guard last year, when they put out jj n° 2, an album full of blissed-out, ambient pop songs that serve as the perfect soundtrack to your next daydream. But the tracks that made the music blogs particularly wet themselves were the ones that drew from an unexpected New Orleans source. “Ecstasy” samples Lil Wayne’s ubiquitous “Lollipop”, while “My Way” goes less obvious, swiping the rapper’s verse from his appearance on Trina’s “Don’t Trip” (not to mention also sampling a creepy Charles Manson monologue for the intro). Suffice to say, these two songs probably do more for Weezy’s career, than Weezy himself has done for his own career lately (Rebirth was absolutely atrocious). Catch the Swedish band when they play the Phoenix on April 4th with another buzzed-about lowercase-named band, London’s The xx.

Gorillaz feat. Bobby Womack & Mos Def – “Stylo”

A few weeks ago, my roommates and I had a vinyl party at our house. We hooked my friend’s record player and receiver to some speakers on our kitchen table, told everyone to bring records, and proceeded to get incredibly intoxicated. It was a great time. There were about thirty people dancing and drinking in our kitchen at one point, we only had one noise complaint, and played everything from The Go-Go’s to The Pixies to Rick Astley’s undisputed classic, “Never Gonna Give You Up”. But the one record that stood out for me, and the one album I’ve been listening to non-stop on my iTunes since, has been Gorillaz’s Demon Days. Of course, I was already familiar with that album’s more well-known songs, such as “Feel Good Inc.” and “Kids With Guns”. But until the party, I’d never really listened to Demon Days’ deeper cuts, like the MF Doom-assisted “November Has Come” or the simply-awesome “Last Living Souls” (on a side note, does anyone know where I can get the instrumental for the latter?). And what do you know, everyone’s favourite British cartoon band are back in the studios once again working on their third album, under the careful direction of this guy of course. The new album is titled Plastic Beach, and is set to feature a musical who’s who of guest vocalists including Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, Barry Gibb, Mos Def, and Bobby Womack . There’s a few demoes floating around already, and a few weeks ago, “Stylo” was leaked which coincided with the announcement that Gorillaz would be headlining Sunday night of this year’s Coachella Festival. You can also follow Murdoc Niccals on Twitter, for album updates and other pearls of wisdom (ex: “I want to stove Stephen Baldwin’s head in with a skillet. I don’t know what a skillet is but I want to do it…”) from the band’s “frontman”.

K’Naan feat. Chubb Rock – “ABCs (5 Alive Remix)”

Whenever I come home from university for the holidays or summer break, the first thing my brothers do is rifle through my iTunes and take all the music/movies that they can’t download on my family’s archaic computer and painfully slow dial-up. This Christmas was the same, except for one striking difference – it would seem that my two younger siblings had started to acquire some real musical taste, as opposed to my hand-me-down Three Day Grace CDs and dime-store emo they once listened to. Fully supportive of the musical leaps and bounds that they had made, I generously made suggestions for artists and bands that I thought they might like. The point of this long-winded and probably unnecessary story is that they ended up really liking K’Naan. Like, a lot. And you should to. And this remix, courtesy of NYC producer 5 Alive, is sweet. So check it out. It’s just that simple.

Skratch Bastid – “110%”
Black Lips feat. GZA – “The Drop I Hold (Afghan Raiders House Party Remix)”

This past weekend, I got a pleasant surprise in my Inbox: four free tickets to see GZA perform at Sound Academy. Despite just finishing an eight hour day of class, I rounded up three friends, and we made the lengthy hike down to the venue. Read my review for the show for more in-depth analysis, but I thought I’d share two tracks (well, technically, a remix and a mix) from the headliners. I don’t know how I missed out on this nifty “The Drop I Hold” remix by Las Vegas’ Afghan Raiders, but it’s definitely going to be played at my next house party. The second is an hour-long mix by Canadian DJ Skratch Bastid, which features everything from classic hip-hop to soul to modern disco, and is also party playlist ready.

DJ Reckoner – “This Is Entertainment”

This is why I need more friends that deejay in their spare time. This particular mix is almost an hour long, and includes songs from Kid Cudi, Basement Jaxx, MSTRKRFT, Daft Punk, Justice, The Ting Tings, among others.

David Byrne & Fatboy Slim feat. Santigold – “Please Don’t”

I can only imagine the conversation that lead to the creation of this truly bizarre concept album. In my mind though, it must have gone something like this…

FATBOY SLIM (answering phone): “Hello?”
DAVID BYRNE: “May I speak to Norman Cook please?”
SLIM: “Speaking.”
BYRNE: “Hello Norman, may I call you Norm? This is David Byrne.”
SLIM: “Who?”
BRYNE: “David Byrne. Surely you’ve heard of me? I was in a band called the Talking Heads that were pretty big in the late 70s, before I start performing with that guy Brian Eno. Anyways, recently I’ve noticed that a bunch of these young New York City bands are idolizing me, so I thought there was no better time to finally record this concept album I’ve had in my head for awhile. And since you haven’t had a hit in…well, quite awhile, I thought you might be interested in collaborating.”
SLIM (slightly irritated): “Now come on, I hardly think that “quite awhile” is fair now.”
BYRNE: “Are you kidding me? “Weapon of Choice” came out when? 2003, wasn’t it?
SLIM (slightly glum): “2001.”
BYRNE: “Exactly. You can’t keep costing on that song forever man. (grows serious) Here’s what I was thinking: an album based on the life of Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philipines. The kids won’t be able to get enough.”
SLIM (laughing): “I don’t know what you’re on right now man, but that shit must be goood, if you know what I mean. Tell me more.”
BYRNE: “And I was thinking we’d get some of those female singers that the hipsters love to do vocals. Maybe that girl from Florence Against The Machine? Or that Golden girl? Do you think we could we get them?
SLIM: “Sir, do you mean Florence Welsh and Santigold?
BYRNE: “That’s them! Get on it. I’ll be in touch.” (hangs up phone)

Probably not. But that was fun to imagine nonetheless.

Lioness – “What You Do (Will Come Back To You)”
Lullabye Arkestra – “Icy Hands”

Two awesome Toronto bands, two awesome music videos. First, Lioness’ video for “What You Do (Will Come Back To You)”, directed by the band’s drummer Jeff Scheven. Next up, we have Toronto director Dylan Reibling’s artfully shot black and white video for Lullabye Arkestra’s “Icy Hands”. Definitely two bands to watch for in 2010.

K'Naan

Because nothing works better for procrastinating studying for exams quite like sharing some music-related news with you…

Ah, the FIFA World Cup. The only international sporting tournament where Canadians can cheer for pretty much any country that they want, and not be persecuted, because let’s be honest – we kind of suck when it comes to soccer. But hey, that doesn’t mean we can’t fiendishly cheer for other teams (myself, I’m going to be playing up my slightly Deutsch heritage – go Oranje! ) and Toronto being such a multi-national city, people can get pretty passionate about the beautiful game. The draw for next summer’s World Cup in South Africa took place last week, and I noticed yesterday that the Adidas store was displaying the snazzy new team jerseys and the official ball in the store’s front windows. WTF does this have to do with music, you ask? Because Somalia-born, Toronto-raised rapper K’Naan’s song “Wavin’ Flag” was selected in September as the official anthem of the 2010 World Cup, and will be featured in online and television commercials leading up to the event. Now we have a video to go with the reworked version of “Wavin’ Flag” – with new soccer-centric lyrics – watch it here. While you’re at it, check out K’Naan performing the song in-studio on CBC’s QTV with Jian Ghomeshi.

Speaking of new albums, rumours from various sources have been flying around on the Internet this week, as to the status of the third Arcade Fire album. Here’s what we do know: there will be a new Arcade Fire album this year, and its being produced by Markus Dravs, who worked on 2007′s Neon Bible. Early speculation suggested a May release date for the album, but now it appears that fans will have to wait until the second half of 2010. The Montreal outfit also are planning to headline some major festivals this summer (including Toronto dates?), but no word yet on where and when these dates will be.

Forty-three dollars is a pretty hefty ticket price, but that’s what its going to cost you if you want to see a double bill of legendary New York City MC Mos Def and British-born, American underground rapper MF Doom, who’ll be performing at Kool Haus on January 27th. Both are touring behind stellar new albums: Def’s The Ecstatic was recently nominated for the Best Rap Album Grammy, while Doom’s Born Like This (featuring production from the likes of the late J Dilla and Californian producer Madlib) received glowering reviews from music critics and fans alike. This bill is sweetened by the additional of local support by Toronto’s http://www.myspace.com/dsisive D-Sisive. Here’s a small taste of what you can expect – Def performing “History” (with Talib Kweli, The Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman and Hayley Dekkle, and The Roots!) on Jimmy Fallon, and Thom Yorke’s remix of Doom’s “Gazzilion Ear”.

Last weekend, I got the chance to catch the second of the Arkells’ two sold-out Toronto shows, and I have to say that I was completely blown away by their live performance. After a solid opening set from Burlington’s Sandman Viper Command (look for my long overdue interview with these guys soon), and an incredibly unremarkable one from St. John’s, Newfoundland’s The Novaks, the Hamilton five-piece hit the stage to the loudest ovation I’ve ever heard a Lee’s Palace audience give a band. They opened up with “Heart of the City”, before playing the rest of their 2008 debut album, Jackson Square, in its entirety. Everything about the songs sounded bigger – the harmonica intro on “No Champagne Socialist”, the “hey, hey, hey!” chants on “The Ballad of Hugo Chavez”, the soaring vocals on “Oh, the Boss Is Coming!” – live than on the record. And when lead singer Max Kerman broke into the chorus from the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby”, during the band’s own “John Lennon”, there wasn’t a person left in the audience that wasn’t singing along. For the encore, the Arkells called on the opening bands to come up on-stage, and proceeded to cover the Temptations’ “Ain’t To Proud to Beg” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark”. Want more proof that these guys have moved beyond their “Canada’s best kept secret” status (the phrase that so many music websites and blogs are still using to describe them)? Only hours after I posted a positive review of the show in my Facebook status, my friend who attends the University of Georgia commented, and said that he had heard of them before. The Arkells are definitely getting around, and its a thrill to see this success happen to such a hard-working, down-to-earth Canadian band. Also, if you haven’t seen the band’s literally-themed new music video for “Pullin’ Punches“, then you can do so here.

Toronto folk-rockers The Wooden Sky will be appearing on MTV Live this Wednesday. For free tickets to the performance, email liveaudience@mtv.ca. More details can be found on the Facebook event page here.

If you are fans of “krautrock”; the experimental style of rock music invented in Germany during the 1970s characterized by improvisation and strong, hypnotic rhymes, and made popular by bands including Neu!, Can, Faust and Kraftwerk (who in turn, has influenced a wide list of artists afterwards including Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, Holy Fuck, Radiohead and The Velvet Underground) than you need to check this documentary out. The BBC Four documentary Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany looks at how an entire counter-culture rose from the ruins of post-World War II Germany – fascinating stuff.

That’s it for me for tonight. Back to studying [insert sad emoticon here].