Those of you that regularly check out my blog (or have just scanned through the archives) probably can pick up on the theme that I don't post as regularly as I have been this week. I think the major reason for my influx of posts is Google Reader.

I try to keep up with two things every day: the news and music. Before I used a desktop based RSS reader, and I was always falling behind, and always beholden to being at that particular computer. With Google Reader I can keep up from anywhere in the world.

Then Google Reader added this function of sharing articles or posts so that other people with Google accounts could see what you wanted to share. Then about a week ago Google made it possible to add notes to what you share, thereby allowing your comments on the piece to be seen by everyone. Right now it is more micro-blogging than these long-winded posts here, but it still helps show why I'm sharing a particular article or a particular song.

And just to show that they're the best in the world at everything, Google also automatically creates a web page that you can link people to. So here is my Google Reader page so you know what I'm reading and what I find interesting and insightful. Call it a backup plan in case I start lagging on the blogging in the future.... which will probably be next week.

And for the record, yes I know the ninjas on my Google Reader page are horrendous and the page layout is pretty blah, but it is a fairly new service and I'm sure Google will improve on it in a very short time.

And yes, the President's book is upside down in that picture.

Gorgeous Weather = Reggae

There are certain types of music that only works with certain types of weather. For example, if I was sitting on a beach and it was all sunny, the last thing I would want to hear is Burial. Or if I was alive and breathing and the earth wasn't being sucked into a blackhole, I'm pretty sure there's no way I could listen to Soulja Boy. In fact, even if the earth was being sucked into a black hole, I wouldn't listen to that guy.

But if there is one absolute in music, it is that warm sunny weather and reggae go hand in hand. It's just true. Don't try to argue with me, because it is an empirical fact. And considering it is a gorgeous Friday afternoon (71 degrees and sunny) I feel compelled to post up a reggae tune.

Now I've always been a fan of Alicia Keys' voice, but not always of the beats she gets backing her. Like nearly every other review I've found online, her song "No One" may suffer the most from the "god what an awful beat" phenomenon. Thankfully though, people realized that lyrically and melodically, "No One" is made to be a reggae song.

In fact, it was so obvious that this should have been a reggae song that there are a ton of reggae versions floating around out there, including an official reggae remix featuring Damien Marley that Keys' own blog posted up. But skip right past that my friends.

The version that you want features Junior Reid and if it doesn't make you want go outside and enjoy nice sunny weather, then turn in your ears.

Alicia Keys - No One (Reggae Remix featuring Junior Reid)

The Cubs signed former Cardinals centerfielder Jim Edmonds on Wednesday.

Today marks the beginning of my boycott of my favorite team in all of sports.

My boycott will end when Jim Edmonds is no longer on the Cubs.

You might wonder how simply picking up an awful, washed up center fielder (he was hitting .178 before the Padres let him go this season) is enough to make me give up on a team I have loyally followed since I was five years old. I mean, as a fan I have survived in recent years the Cubs putting an impatient guy that couldn't hit as their leadoff man, a catcher that caused gasps of shock whenever he managed to make contact with the ball, not one, not two, but three abhorrent closers who probably are the cause of my hair falling out, and a manager that relied on such an awful approach to baseball that after leaving the Cubs, he also ruined the Cincinnati Reds in less than half a season. And let's not even talk about how the Cubs poor management destroyed the arms of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior.

I even put up with obvious off season crap that the Cubs organization was directly responsible for. Steve Stone, the best color analyst in baseball and as much a Chicago broadcasting legend as Harry Caray, was driven away by Cubs management for simply speaking the truth about a bad team that every Cubs fan knew was bad (and agreed with many of Stone's reasons). In a shameless grab for money, the Cubs put the word "Bud Light" on the famous bleachers even though Budweiser is the official beer of the Cubs's arch-rivals, the Cardinals.

And then there's that little fact that we haven't even been a part of the World Series since 1945.

But the level of patience that is required to put up with all of that is what it means to be a Cubs fan. I still love the Cubs players. There are few places on earth that make me happier than Wrigley Field. And I still love the Cubs. But Jim Hendry, the Cubs General Manager, has crossed the line with Edmonds.

Not only is Edmonds one of the Cardinals that Cubs fans hated the most, but he has no offensive pop left in his game, he flops and he cries like a little baby all the time. In short, he's the last thing the Cubs need on a team that this year has consistently shown the selfless team unity like the Red Sox have shown the past four years.

What probably is the toughest thing for me is that the signing of Fukudome has been so amazing. He, along with Theriot, Reed Johnson and (I can't believe I'm writing this) Ronny Cedeno have been patient and effective. It's made the Cubs everything I've hoped they'd one day be. This is a year where I would watch every single game if I could. Now I won't watch a single one until Edmonds is gone.

I understand that Felix Pie hasn't been performing the way Lou would like and Lou wants another left-handed bat in the lineup. But has Felix really been given the chance? The longest stretch of consecutive games that Pie has started this year is four. It's impossible to think that someone can get their batting average up if they're being yanked around that much.

Back to Edmonds, the level of hate for this guy is parallel to the Bulls signing John Starks (which they did and which made me stop watching the Bulls), or if J.J. Reddick had transferred to UNC, or if Derek Jeter was signed by the Red Sox or if the Democrats put Dick Cheney as their nominee for president in 2008.

Anyway, I could just keep trying to articulate why the signing of a single player has made me shun a team that I still love. But there's no way to say with words how much I hate this decision. If you're a real Cubs fan, you understand exactly what I'm talking about. And if not, sorry for making you read this much.

Someone wake me up when this asshat Edmonds is off the team.

Radiohead was gooooood.

Ironically, I was in that awful town of St. Louis yesterday to see the anything but awful Radiohead. This was my third time seeing what could, and rightly should, be called the most important band of my generation.

Their live show has always been something astounding. I don't know how they do it (or why other bands can't do it), but their sound, their dynamics and the balance is unlike anyone else. Even in an outdoor ampitheater the sound was better than most people's home systems. You could clearly hear every part, and when they rocked out it was studio quality.

But that was part of the interesting thing about the show. It really only had a few true rock out moments (Idiotheque, Paranoid Android, Airbag and Reckoner) and the rest was extremely mellow, mostly composed of tunes from their new album In Rainbows. But even some of the older tracks like You And Who's Army or The Gloaming were of the more subdued nature as well. For the world's biggest rock band playing in front of a sea of people, it felt like the setlist was originally designed a small venue or even a coffee shop. It was a weird dynamic I haven't fully wrapped my head around yet.

Two notes about the crowd: First, there were way too many frat types there. It's shocking how a band that has done so much to purposely try to alienate its fans seems to draw in people that don't listen to similar music with open minds. Second, people in St. Louis smell awful, including the guy standing next to me. He smelled like he had been out drinking Bud Light all day in the sun, but instead of hiding his stench with deodorant or heaven forbid a shower, this guy cleansed himself with a strange combination of vanilla beans and dead fish.

But I paid little attention to the crowd. The stage show was amazing, including a lighting setup that featured these long metal rods that were able to create a whole slew of awesome visuals including an ocean type setting for Weird Fishes, rain for a few songs, and a rainbow psychedelic visual feast during the closing Paranoid Android. Here's a picture that shows what the stage looks like.

Hopefully I'll be able to dig up some video and more pics in the near future. But if you'd like to see the setlist (and another shot of the stage) here is a link to the setlist in some shoddy St. Louis paper (they don't have quality things in St. Louis).

Obviously I'm going to post up a song that Radiohead played, but not the version you think. The studio recording (and subsequently the live version) of The Gloaming is pretty darn boring. It's a song that doesn't seem to do much.

However, in 2004 DJ Shadow remixed The Gloaming, and pressed it to a super cool looking shaped picture vinyl.


Yes, that's what the actual record looks like. DJ Shadow gave this record to anyone that ordered more than $22 from the DJ Shadow store. It was an unannounced give away and there are only 2,000 copies pressed.

The remix is phenomenal, with a hilarious George Bush loop at the start, and Shadow's trademark punchy drums rescuing the dull original.

I've tried six times to get a copy of the vinyl on eBay, but my $99 bids have never been enough. However, I was able to snag an mp3 of the remix, and now you can snag one too:

Radiohead - The Gloaming (DJ Shadow Remix)

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank had always cracked me up because he managed to find a multitude of actual details in American politics that when all brought together created stories that felt like they have to be fiction. At least that's what I thought was going on.

His May 6th piece, "It's All About Nothing" now has me thinking that I missed the bigger joke. That it was always just fiction.

That's what happens when Dana Milbank pays attention to the day to day happenings in the White House these days. There's no way to tell if all of it's true or it's all made up. It's Madness!!!

But do yourself a favor after you finish reading "It's All About Nothing" go back through Milbank's archive for more political insight that will make you laugh and make you furious simultaneously. Milbank is the strongest argument for reading The Washington Post every week.


Jim, meet Stevie. Now go on tour with him!

So I haven't gotten around to hearing all of his latest album, but I've heard enough from Jamie Lidell to know that he and Stevie Wonder absolutely, positively have to go on tour across the United States, and that tour needs to happen NOW!

Listen to one of Jamie Lidell's new singles called Little Bit of Feel Good.



If by the first minute your mind isn't awash with the possibilities of a Stevie and Jamie tour, then you need to go back an learn who Stevie Wonder is. Here, let's start with perhaps the best thing that ever happened on Sesame Street (and that is saying something):



Now if Stevie is able to rock that hard on the set of a children's television show, can you imagine him being in front of stadium crowds after Jamie Lidell torches as an opener. And then the jam sessions at the end.... Jamie comes out to sing on Higher Ground



Stevie joins in on Lidell's When I Come Back Around



Can you hear the full funk band with massive horn section behind them? Hell, get the Dap Kings to tour with them and then have Sharon Jones come out for even more jamming.

I'm just saying, this could be the massive funk revival for Stevie. He is dangerously close, or I hate to say it, hanging out in meek adult contemporary land. This could jump start him back to the funk that everyone loves about Stevie.

It could be the major funk revival for mainstream music, which I can feel in my bones is going to happen either this year or next. It could propel Lidell to the level of popularity that he deserves. And it would create a tour that would be immensely fun to attend and even follow from city to city. When's the last time anyone put together a mainstream tour like that?

Why is this not happening this very instant? Are American tour promoters this clueless?

Do it!

In reality, Lidell will be performing a little closer to a show like this over the next few months:



Which is more than enough reason for me to get up to Chicago for that. :D

Oh and heck... here's a tune you can take with you from Lidell's new album called Jim.

Jamie Lidell - Little Bit of Feel Good

It's no secret that I think the country with the best mainstream musical taste is England (or maybe the UK across the board). While US airwaves are filled with schlock by Yung Jucc, Yung Bucc, or Yung Crap featuring Soulja Boy, the UK airwaves proudly trumpet groups like The Streets, Portishead, Radiohead and more electronic acts than I can possibly list.

This week though, the UK truly proved itself to me, when Madonna's newest album lost the top spot on the UK charts to these guys:


So "these guys" may look like a middle-aged boy band, but really, they're German techno/hardcore/happy hardcore performers, Scooter. They are the group that is responsible for super cheese rave hits like "How Much Is The Fish?" and "I'm Raving." It represents everything that I can't stand about Candy Rave culture. In fact, if you want to see how bad things are, this is the title track from the number one album in the UK:



At this point, you might think I've lost my mind if I'm happy that album is number one anywhere, let alone the UK. Most would see this as an example of the decline of taste in one of the best musically educated countries in the world. But also on the top five is Madonna's actually solid new effort and the new Portishead. In fact, Portishead's album debuted at #2 last week.

So what does this all say about UK Mainstream music? To an outside observer like myself, it shows that the powers that help push mainstream music on the British masses, are far more open minded than their US counterparts. Most US mainstream music follows the style of the last "surprising" hit.

Why are we seeing so many UK female solo singers in the US right now? Because Amy Winehouse "came out of nowhere" to find a receptive American audience and now every major American label and every commercial radio station is falling over themselves to find the next Amy Winehouse.

After Lil Wayne or Lil Jon blew up, we saw 800,000,000 southern hip hop singles get released to major airplay, when really, only a handful were of high enough quality to earn that much exposure.

Think of every sub-genre fad, whether it was introspective Brit Pop (i.e. Coldplay, Travis), swing revival (Brian Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Squirrel Nut Zippers) or even teeny bopper singers (Britney, X-tina, Hillary Duff, Mandy Moore) and the trend that emerges is pretty simple. One band that has a song that is going to appeal to a lot of people somehow sneaks up on major American labels (because they are so out of touch with American listeners). That song breaks huge, suddenly major labels think that particular genre or sound is what everyone wants, and before you know it, T-Pain is singing the hook on every other song on the radio.

In reality, American listeners and consumers are just like everyone else. They want good songs. Not bad carbon copies of the first good song.

The UK's charts and radio always seem to reflect quality of the individual act, as opposed to the act being part of the "herd of the moment." Now before someone brings up the Spice Girls, or Babyshambles or anything else that is the polar opposite of Radiohead when it comes to critical quality, keep in mind that when I say "quality" I don't mean intrinsic quality of the song, but instead it's ability to appeal to the masses on its own. "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba may be three of the most pointless minutes in the history of mankind, but anyone with an ear for a hook knew that was going to be a hit. US radio stations, MTV and marketing execs only knew that because it was going to be big because it was first a hit in England. For further examples of record labels being caught off guard, please see Coldplay's "Yellow", Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" and Amy Winehouse's entire presence in America.

So to bring us back around to Scooter. I can't say that I really like happy hardcore (which is what I would call Jumping All Over the World's musical style). And I won't be buying that album. And I think Scooter has no chance of ever crossing over to the States. But you'd have to be pretty jaded to deny the catchiness of the chorus. I think it's a great world where a simple hook, even if its one you don't like, can still rise to the top of the pop charts. And still have a Portishead album in the top 5 of those same charts. Unfortunately, that part of the world is on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Oh well, there's always Radio 1.

God Bless Britannia!

Simple Masher

I don't have an mp3 to post up. So you're going to have to make due with a wonderful but very simple mashup that I only have a youtube video for right now. It's space disco maestros Metro Area mashed up with Michael Jackson. More specifically, it's the beats for Orange Alert with MJ's "Bad" vocals. Seems simple enough that if I can't find a copy of the remix, I'll just remake it on my own.

I'm not really sure what the visuals have to do with this mashup, but it seems to work.



Back soon with some actually downloadable music for you. And links to new mixes and such.