“Companies spend millions trying to differentiate their brand from the others. Yet a quick look at the logos of major corporations reveals that in color as in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. The result is an ever more frantic competition for the best neighborhood. Here’s a look at the new blue bloods” – Michael Rock, Wired Magazine.
It’s Tuesday, one of the most boring days of the week. But not anymore, here are a few of my favorite latests tracks:
Chromeo has been a staple in my dance mixes for a while now. This Canadian act can make even white people shake their ass. A mix of funk, disco and dance this is the perfect track for your next dance party.
[audio:chromeo.mp3]
Download: Chromeo – Night by Night
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I know I Know, it’s Vampire Weekend, they were so summer ’08. Many found them pretentious and untalented but I could not resist their afrobeat influenced pop tunes. They have finally announced a new album “Contra” and this is their first single.
[audio:horchata.mp3]
Download: Vampire Weekend – Horchata
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Speak of hidden gems, Delorean is such a breath of fresh air when it comes to electronic music. Their dark danceable pop tunes are a delicious cocktail of Passion Pit, Phoenix and The Field. They could have become my ’09 summer soundtrack only if they were not too late in their release.
[audio:seasun.mp3]
Download: Delorean – Seasun
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Let me start by saying that this is Wayne Coyne nephew’s band, Dennis Coyne. Stardeath & White Dwarfs mimics many of The Flaming Lips space rock aesthetics but they are by no means a complete copy. Living under your uncle’s shadow must be hard but think of all the benefits, one of them being a deal with Warner Brothers.
[audio:icantgetaway.mp3]
Download: Stardeath & White Dwarfs – I Can’t Get Away
It seems like whenever I go out I spend half the time trying to communicate with friends, cutting down my partying time. This Halloween, I was overburdened trying to give directions to friends, comparing parties and trying to tweet for those far away (ahem, Jordan). It was the first time where I had half the conversations of the night looking down at my phone. It’s a tough situation because you’re always on the lookout for the next big thing, so you’re texting friends about directions. In the meantime your friends that are running late to the first party have to be informed that you’ve moved on and therefore will have to be given directions. It’s all one big chain. I feel this is a complex for people in big cities like New York. In other regions there might be one option for the night and all your friends are expected to be there. Twittering has solved some of these problems but not all my friends are on Twitter, so they still rely on one to one conversations. Google also has tried to solve this problem with a great app called Latitude. It works great if you can get your friends to sign up. Many feel it’s too intrusive, as it shows your location to all friends on a map. Social networking can solve this problem, it’s just a matter of deciding on one medium to communicate with all friends effectively, without having to text every 5 minutes.
Earlier this week, 1.5 million people filled the streets of Berlin, Germany to watch a several-day performance by France’s Royal de Luxe street theatre company titled “The Berlin Reunion”. Part of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Reunion show featured two massive marionettes, the Big Giant, a deep-sea diver, and his niece, the Little Giantess. The storyline of the performance has the two separated by a wall, thrown up by “land and sea monsters”. The Big Giant has just returned from a long and difficult – but successful – expedition to destroy the wall, and now the two are walking the streets of Berlin, seeking each other after many years apart.
I am so amazed by the scale of this production. Not just the beauty of it but also the logistics it must have taken to pull it off. From the images it seemed like such a magical performance, I only wished I was there in person. What a breathtaking view to see immense marionettes performing for four days around Berlin. As one of the commentators observed: “Very European…New Yorkers would want more action & explosions”, sad but true. It really does put the Macy’s balloons to shame.
Make sure to see all images at the Boston Globe’s website: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/10/the_berlin_reunion.html
Not having actually grown up in the States and immersing myself in the book, I had no idea what ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ was. It was not until seeing the breathtaking trailer with music by the Arcade Fire that I began to understand how deeply embedded the story was with my generation. So I’ve taken it upon myself to really embrace the film and everything about it. Here is the full stream of the soundtrack performed by Karen O. of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and her band The Kids.
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready to laugh your asses off. This is a hilarious PSA brought to you by SIIA about software piracy in 1992. Watch in amazement how ridiculous we used to dress and more importantly the use of floppy disks, where we had the capability of storing a whopping 1.4 megabytes!
The PSA was such a success that SIIA have just released a second version. Same talented rapper, this time flying through space to dance with Klingons and educate you about anti-piracy.
Seriously SIIA? Seriously?! Come on, watching those videos have only made me want to pirate more.
Vampire Weekend have announced their sophomore album titled “Contra” to be released on January 12, 2010. The pop superstars created quite a buzz with their viral marketing campaign by releasing images of mystery girl in music blogs linking to ithinkuracontra.com. Now we know the site redirects to Vampire Weekend’s site.
Here is the track listing:
01. Horchata
02. White Sky
03. Holiday
04. California English
05. Taxi Cab
06. Run
07. Cousins
08. Giving Up The Gun
09. Diplomat’s Son
10. I Think Ur A Contra
Honestly, I think Vampire weekend are a bit overated. Although this summer would have not been the same without them. Looking forward to hear what they bring to the table this time. As with most releases nowadays you should keep an eye out for a leaked version to hit the net.
1. Back in my day, we only needed 140 characters.
2. There used to be so much snow up here, you could strap a board to your feet and slide all the way down.
3. Televised contests gave cash prizes to whoever could store the most data in their head.
4. Well, the screens were bigger, but they only showed the movies at certain times of day.
5. We all had one, but nobody actually used it. Come to think of it, I bet my LinkedIn profile is still out there on the Web somewhere.
6. 
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7. Our bodies were made of meat and supported by little sticks of calcium.
8. You used to keep files right on your computer, and you had to go back to that same computer to access them!
9. Is that the new iPhone 27G? Got multitasking yet?
10. I just can’t get used to this darn vat-grown steak. Texture ain’t right.
10 Best Things We’ll Say to Our Grandkids
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Just in time for last summer, new MGMT video for their single ‘Kids’. Watch as they scare a poor baby with monsters and then explode to a psychedelic animation orchestrated by the likes of Wonder Showzen.
Perhaps they should have just given the kid this monster head kiddie car, this is one scare you can’t get away from.
Phoenix’s song is no more than 2 weeks old and it’s already poised to become the jam of this summer. Fan made videos have already sparked on YouTube here and there and the blogs can’t stop writing about them. The Following video is a tribute of a tribute from Bratpack’s mashup:
The Original Bratpack video:
Face it, music is part of our daily lives whether we like it or not. But some people just have bad taste in music, here are some of my favorite recent albums that will enhance your palate.
1. Kitsuné Maison Compilation 7
(Electronic, indie, compilation)
Fringe Element (Short Like me edit) – Beni
This French music label has been putting out these mixes for a while now. They started back in 2002 and have realeased artists such as Alan Braxe, Bloc Party, Boyz Noize, Crystal Castles, Cut Copy, Yelle, Hot Chip and many others. They are considered to be in the forefront of electronic music with some of the biggest names in their portfolio. These mixes are early previews of soon to be released tracks.
2. Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
(Pop, rock, electronic)
Lisztomania – Phoenix
[audio:lisztomania.mp3]
I was at La Poisson Rouge in NYC for a DJ set by members of Le Tigre and CSS when I heard these guys. They instantly rang a bell, feeling this intense familiarity with the song that was played, ‘Lisztomania’. The next day, I knew where I had heard it, there was a remix of the song on Kitsuné’s compilation. So I instantly set out to get their music. This is the fourth album release for this pop/rock/electro french musicians. I guarantee instant love.
3. The Field: Yesterday and Today
(Electronic, minimal, ambient)
The More That I do – The Field
[audio:themore.mp3]
‘Yesterday and Today’ is the sequel to the critically acclaimed previous release by Swedish artist Axel Willner. Combining minimalist techno and ambient music, the album will take you in an ethereal vicodin induced trip through the clouds. Beautiful textures, beats and synths will take you from song to song, some of them expanding more than 10 minutes. If you would like to enhance the experience, drink a bottle of Robitussin listen to this album.
This bad boy of a gadget projects an image from a retrofitted camera at the exact moment another camera snaps a picture with flash. This creates an invisible illusion to the human eye only seen after the picture is taken. This is the brain child of Julius von Bismarck from Germany. In a recent interview from Wired.com he stated that this is the first prototype with many others in the works. Fearing large corporations trying to steal his idea for marketing purposes he refuses to publicly disclose them.
Its a very simple idea done right. This is a great way to stealthily sneak your own messages or images onto highly photographed events, locations, people, etc. I can see how viral marketing companies would like to invest on this for their own evil purposes. So next time you snap a picture, make sure there are no hidden URLs or messages on your picture.
http://www.juliusvonbismarck.com/fulgurator/index.html
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/06/exclusive-inter/
Oh man, what a crazy friday night. I haven’t had one like this in a while. Chance encounters with all old friends and making new ones. First party was a friend’s birthday party. The theme, a Masquerade ball Brooklyn style. Live band performances, art and DJs. All of this bundled in a large and impressive loft in Greenpoint. A lot of interesting characters, from an extremely tall cross-dressing goblin to Inky from Pac-Man. Check out the pictures bellow:
Second party, I rounded up a group of friends and headed to The Wedding of Winkel & Balktick. Huge underground party in a historic Fort Greene church. Think of this as a post burning man celebration, full of art, music, drugs, strange characters. People walked around on stilts, minimal techno blasted through the night and many ‘got married’. Polygamy was the theme of the night I would say. Brooklyn is full of characters but there was one last night that truly stood out. This was the human carpet man. This man wrapped himself in a carpet and laid in front of the bar allowing everyone to step all over him. He did this all night. You can see him in the pictures below:
All in all it was an incredible night. Brooklyn has so much to offer when it comes to nightlife. It definitely beats going bar or club hopping with a bunch of yuppies.
X-Men Originins: Wolverine
The highly anticipated Fox film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine has leaked to bittorrent sites a few days ago and has already reached millions of downloads. About a week ago 20th Century Fox’s unfinished film was released to the online masses via an unknown leak. In just over a week it has reached over a million downloads. The film is unfinished, with a lot of the special effects scenes not completely done. You can still see green screens, choppy dropped in backgrounds and wires. Fox has tried to minimize its losses by sending bittorrent sites take down notices but by the time that request is processed 10 more links are uploaded. Fox has gone as far as calling in the FBI to investigate the source of the leak, we are after all talking about a multi million dollar movie.
The download has quickly risen to the top 10 downloads on the most popular bittorrent sites. On a recent poll by Torrentfreak.com, about 5000 voters expressed their views concerning the recent leak. Most of them felt that leaking the movie online will not affect it’s final success and they are actually excited to see it on movie theaters or DVD.
Torrent Freak Poll on X-Men Origins: Wolverine
via Torrentfreak.com