Midnight!

I've always associated this song with New Year's Eve, equal parts downtempo reflections on the past and hopeful aspirations for the future. Plus there's that ever-so-appropriate exclamation of, "Midnight!" at the end.

This song was released in 1996; like the rest of Endtroducing... it's held up remarkably well.

Mongolia has nothing to do with New Year's Eve per-se, it's just that the scenery is stunning and the whole thing is exceptionally well done.

DJ Shadow
"Midnight In a Perfect World"

Toy robots, marching as to war

Yes, the guitar sounds a little like "My Sharona" in the beginning there. Now that we have that out of the way:

I like this song, and I like this video, but I'm not sure they really play well together. That is to say, the video would lead one to expect something a bit darker, distorted and/or downright nasty from the music. This song is many things, but nasty is not one of them; rather, there's an urgent and airy quality to the distortion instead of the brutality and destruction hinted at in the video.

Still no reason not to post.

The Lost Valentinos
"Thief"

Scream like a Van She

Some more 80´s electronic tinged Australian pop for y’alls, this time including 'stache.

Gotta dig the 'stache.

Van She
"Strangers"

When it rains...

Today I fly from Detroit back to Texas.

Australian synthpop today. With rain.

Lots of rain.

Cut Copy
"Hearts on Fire"

If one horn is good...

...four or more is even better.

The amazing Roland Kirk demonstrates his ability to play a number of different horns and/or flutes - he often played them simultaneously. A full 10 minutes for your listening enjoyment (it gets particularly soulful at the end).

Roland Kirk Quintet
"Three For Festival/Volunteered Slavery"

And everybody's happy

Remember inflation? The nerd in me wants to go into Fed interest rate policy and how the popular association that post-bubble economic crisis = inflation has proved to be a poor guide in, say, Japan.

But then there's the part of me that likes that old-school, down and dirty, garage-rock sound.

I'm enjoying the rare occasion when everybody's happy.

Woven Bones
"Your Sorcery"

Navidad!

This song is about a Puerto Rican tradition of the "asalto navideno" - the "Christmas assault" - in which a group of people arrive unannounced at somebody's house late at night and play music loudly, often waking them up, until they are let in. There is then a great deal of cooking, eating and drinking, and quite often at least some now-awake inhabitants of the house will accompany the group to repeat the process.

To say that things are a bit loose and unstructured in Puerto Rico is, of course, an understatement. Good fun nonetheless.

El Gran Combo
"Asalto Navideno"

Christmas!

Merry and/or Happy Christmas, and/or Feliz Navidad to all!

I'm at my grandmother's house for Christmas, and it seemed only proper. Incidentally, I have to say that the holiday shopping experience would be so much better if all Christmas music were by Sufjan Stevens.

Sufjan Stevens
"Put the Lights on the Tree"

Michael the Greek

Michael Jackson reworked over some reworking of the sounds of early house music, with passable visuals from Zorba the Greek.

Who's bad-meaning-good?

Metro Area vs. Michael Jackson (SOMEONE mashup)

You can dance if you're programmed for it...

Classic disco-house video from waaaay back in 2001. That dancing robot isn't the only thing that's held up remarkably well over the years - that there's a nice quasi-funk-guitar electro line hiding out beneath the unremarkable lyrics.

Playgroup
"Number One"

On the road again....

Today we drive from Ithaca, New York, to Detroit, MI. The road goes through much expanses of open country - kind of like the video - and produces sleepy, yet pleasant feelings of contemplation and reflection - kind of the like the music.

The Mathletes are out of Houston, but you'd never know it from the music.

The Mathletes
"Zero Gravity"

That old-time feeling

Street musicians that, in another city, would probably be booking solid gigs: another reason to love NY.

The Blue Vipers
Live in Union Square

Love to the NYC

Aw, yeah - b-boys, pizza, subways and music till dawn.

I'm off today for Detroit, to spend Christmas proper with the family. But I like NY, so much that I'm going to live there for a year in February. The title says it all.

Holy Ghost!
"I Will Come Back"

Strange times in NY

I'm still in New York.

My gut reaction to this NSFW video was "Jesus. Didn't they get cold?"

Yeah, it's a stunt. But it does give you a different take on the song, no?

Matt and Kim
"Lessons Learned"

Winter Wonderland

Remember "Hot In Herre?" Wish you didn't? Fear not, the inimitable Jenny Owen Youngs has crafted a much more pleasant version to get stuck in your head, complete with surreal winter-themed scenery.

(Today I'm off from the Dirty South to New York for some family time. It seemed as good an excuse as any to post this.)

Jenny Owen Youngs
"Hot In Herre"

The living and the dead

Electronic in the fashion of early 80's video games, emotive almost to the point of melodrama.

This would be an excellent title track for an HBO series involving an undead doctor trying to atone for past sins, but failing as much as succeeding.

So Many Dynamos
"New Bones"

Back to Front

The standard bearer for nerdcore - what with the science, the video games, the thick glasses and all - is probably MC Frontalot. In addition to its glorious nerdiness, like this song because sometimes I do have dreams that combine the academic with the generalized bizarreness that emerges when you sleep.

Dreams can be pretty messed up at times.

MC Frontalot
"Bizarro Genius Baby"

1st move

In addition to being a master at the keyboard despite blindness, George Shearing is best known as the composer of the standard "Lullaby of Birdland" (about Charlie Parker and his New York jazz club Birdland). This is proof that he can do uptempo just as well.

George Shearing
"Move"

The revolution will involve a catchy beat

New salsa coming out of Colombia. The story is essentially of a slave revolt that was sparked by a Spaniard striking down a slave woman - the chorus goes "don't lay a hand on my (black) woman" - this also this exemplifies the combination of sentimentality, melodrama, rhythm and joyfulness that characterizes a lot of the Caribbean.

As well as demonstrating that there is very little that can not be expressed through interpretive dance.

Joe Arroyo
"La rebelion"

The road ahead

Magical, playful, dreamy pop despite the sense that things are all going downhill from here, but that there's not much that can be done about it. It's as if they had grown up in a time of growth and plenty, had a coming of age into war and are stepping out into the real world during the greatest postwar economic crisis, or something.

Via Audio
"Developing Active People"

Kids these days

These guys look young. I mean, I couldn't help thinking, "Damn, these guys are young!" the first time I saw this. The music has a sense of expectation and potential appropriate for a band in all its fresh-faced, wide-eyed and awkward glory. And it works, despite their seeming to be not sure what to do with cameras staring them in the face.

To my mind, they're at the stage where the Beatles were with "Love Me Do" - a damned good place to start.

Two Door Cinema Club
"Undercover Martyn"

On a boat

The first couple of times I listened to this song I thought, "Yeah, I don't know" but then never quite went on to something else.

This is usually a sign that I'll like it a lot more when I listen again.

It helps that this has all the makings of a beautiful video - a combination of nighttime shots of a boat adrift on a lake, the moon casting appropriate lighting, the aurora borealis adding atmosphere, and a nice retro flavor to it all. Combine that with a slow, steady piano-based sound and the pieces come together into something that is beautiful, yes, but oddly disturbing and heavy at the same time.

It's like when an uncertain situation is finally resolved, but in the worst possible way - a sense of relief mixed with trying to wrap your head around new realities.

The Owls
"The Way On"

Do not adjust your television set

In the grand tradition of Berlin techno, this track distorts any semblance of a non-electronic sound to the point of non-recognition while keeping it all flowing together with an even beat.

The video does likewise.

Boys Noize
"Jeffer"

Vampires? Werewolves!

Tribal. Very tribal.

And just the thing to play at the point in the night out when you lose track of what time it is, because time doesn't seem particularly relevant at the moment.

Rainbow Arabia
"Omar K"

Be joyful

Being the sort of person who rocks out at the opera, I've always liked this song. With it, Erroll Garner shows us what jazz piano virtuosity looks like. He also channels Tito Puente as the music brings an increasingly intense mix of joy and surprise to his face.

Dig the haircut too.

Erroll Garner
"The Lady Is A Tramp"

Magic. Absolute magic.

I can't tell whether this is low-quality appropriation of 80's animation (Jem!) or a low-budget imitation of 80's animation. Either way, it fits the distorted, longing-for-innocence and 80's-tinged music beautifully.

I can see this providing the soundtrack to a scene where the protagonist goes through a drug-induced near-death experience and considers the life that has been with great love.

Magic Wands
"Treasure"

Rock, rock, rock

This is among the more sedate tracks by The Grates - the lead singer especially has a tendency towards the frenetic - but it's my personal favorite. Granted, the lyrics are such that they can be interpreted in many ways, which might be why it seems to speak to your particular, hopes, dreams, fears and expectations.

Incidentally, just like people tend to do Shakespeare with a British accent, it's always funny to hear how people tend to sound more American while singing popular songs.

The Grates
"Rock Boys"

Murder most foul

From an old, 50's Puerto Rican movie featuring one of the most classic salsa singers of all time, Ismael Rivera, as a young lad with Rafael Cortijo's band before salsa emerged as a distinct genre.

This song is (affectionately, honest!) about a black guy with fat lips who gets murdered, despite being well beloved among the people.

In Latin America, it's not just "you either have to laugh or cry" - you can dance.

Rafael Cortijo, vocals by Ismael Rivera
"El Negro Bembon"

Coffee or tea?

Once upon a time I lived outside of Mexico City, far enough out so that the pollution wasn't too bad but close enough so that I could see the lights of the city come up from the balcony as the sun set.

Another, alternative video for this wistful, ambient-inspired track would be a long shot of somebody on a high balcony, late at night, drinking a mug of coffee (or tea), looking at the lights of the city below for the entire 2:57.

The track captures that feeling beautifully.

Populous
"Canoe Canoa"

This video made possible by the Second Amendment

There's not much in the way of lyrics here. They're not really needed, as the music does an excellent job of capturing the 80's-horror-movie tension and panic of suddenly realizing the father of that girl you're with is getting close, and that he has a gun, and that he's none too happy about what's happening. (The father later gets taken out by the movie's monster/psycho/supernatural entity. You can tell.)

Mother Mother
"Hayloft"

The dark rise of the nerds

It should tell you something that Schaffer the Darklord refers to himself as "STD." Serving as the master of ceremonies (an "original" MC) for the free dive-bar burlesque show a friend of mine runs in Brooklyn when he's not busy doing that whole national nerdcore tour thing.

Being somewhat nerdy myself, I thoroughly approve of the reductionist, literalist tendency to the lyrics ("Where's Queens at? Where's Queens at? It's right over here, I'll show you on the street map"). Match them with an awkwardly hyperactive geeky style and hilarity ensues.

The lovely young ladies from the Peach Tartes burlesque troupe don't hurt at all either.

Schaffer the Darklord
"The Rappist"