Culture Greyhound

These guys used to rule. Observe.

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My favorite noise-punk, Half Japanese-channeling brothers the Numerators have been repping Lubbock right lately, receiving much-deserved press in Weekly Tape Deck and Pitchfork’s black sheep sister site Altered Zones.  And while those sites all by themselves get enough traffic to provide my old triangle-loving friends some crazy publicity, I just wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t do my part here at Culture Greyhound.

The guys have a limited-release split 7-inch with Athens’ the Coathangers, available from Suicide Squeeze Records.  Grab it right here.  The song on the vinyl in question is one of the finest Numerators tracks, like, ever – a grimy, loud, distorted bounce-worthy tune called “Strawberry Dreams.”  Grab it and become a fan already!

The Numerators – Strawberry Dreams

Today I continue a series of posts dedicated to the best albums of the last decade, posting analysis of one album at a time.

46. Girl Talk – Night Ripper

Before 2006, Girl Talk was merely a laptop-based sound collage dude, as his 2002 debut Secret Diary reveals.  It’s interesting, but as far as the Greg Gillis we know and love today, it’s worlds apart, and frankly, musically speaking, an unlistenable mess.  2003’s Unstoppable, while still pretty low-key and amateur, is more in line with the mashup style Girl Talk would be famous for.  And then there was Night Ripper, a 45-minute nonstop party album, combining indie with mainstream hip-hop, modern R&B hits with classic rock staples, Motown gold with 90’s alternative.

This year, Gillis released his fifth proper LP All Day, and if one thing is certain, it’s that the man has honed his craft.  Still, there are many moments of timeless brilliance on this breakthrough disc – Puff Daddy alongside the Pixies, Biggie with Elton John, David Banner rapping to Nine Inch Nails, MIA rocking out to Hum.  The mixes come at you a mile a minute; it’s not an album to fully digest in one sitting, or two, or three.  And the remarkable thing is this: much like another artist who takes from pop culture in its current incarnation to make something completely different (I’m thinking of Weird Al), the results have oddly aged well, even when the source hasn’t.

Since Night Ripper exploded onto the scene with glowing reviews, Gillis has remained a mainstay on the dance scene, entertaining the festival circuit with his signature brand of shows (where he invites fans to rush the stage for the entirety of his performance) and becoming a prominent figurehead in the copyright/sampling debate.  Naturally, Girl Talk has as many detractors as fans – how, they ask, could someone get so famous for creating something anyone could do in their bedroom?  And yet, almost five years after Night Ripper and a plethora of emulation later, no one does it quite like Girl Talk.

Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.

100. Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks

From that catchy whistling to the shaking maracas, how could this song not have been a huge hit?  I knew it was gonna be everywhere the first time I heard it.  I’m a sucker for the boy-girl conversation songs (Johnny and June’s “Jackson” is probably my all-time favorite, and “Paradise By the Dashboard Light” is up there as well), and “Young Folks” is no exception.  It’s a percussive, melodic “I Got You Babe” for the iPod generation.

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Music, Movies, Television, etc. Pop culture reviews for the short-attention-span Internet age.

Daft Punk – Tron Legacy Soundtrack

When I heard back in February Daft Punk were doing the music for Tron, I was immediately excited – new Daft Punk? Awesome!  In retrospect I don’t know why I thought producing a score for a Disney sci-fi film would sound anything like Discovery, and inevitably it doesn’t.  That doesn’t mean this hour-long soundtrack doesn’t have its moments – the sound is great, the French duo’s first stab at composing orchestral tunes is to be applauded, and the combination of strings with Daft Punk’s trademark house crescendo is simultaneously creepy and, well, cinematic.  And there are even a couple bangers hidden in here too, reminiscent  of the good ol’ Daft Punk.  There just aren’t enough for my tastes.  In the end, it’s just a film score.

Rating: 6

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Radio Freq “Turn on the Radio” from JoeL Knoernschild on Vimeo.

Robyn – Indestructible (A-trak Radio Edit)

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Emil & Friends – Short Order Cooks

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HeRobust – Grief Case (Star Slinger’s WWHRD Remix)

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Reading Rainbow – Wasting Time

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Dead Trees – Back to L.A.

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Where did all the chillwave go? If 2009 was the year for it, 2010 was the year for slow, boring indie snooze-rock galore.  Once the xx got all famous, that sound (as pretty as it is) over-saturated our hipster culture.  Damn it, sometimes I just gotta dance! — to music that chops up samples, mixes 80’s new wave with trip-hop and electro, and usually consists of indecipherable, reverb-heavy vocals.  Love it!  So thank God for Brothertiger, and now thank God for Games.

While I personally haven’t been a huge fan of Daniel Lopatin’s drone-heavy Oneohtrix Point Never project, I adore this collaboration with Tigercity’s Joel Ford.  The crew’s latest EP That We Can Play (above) is a six-track synth-y treat.  The highlight is, of course, the Cocteau Twins-channeling “Strawberry Skies” featuring vocals from Brooklyn singer Laurel Halo, while “Shadows In Bloom” sounds like something clipped and diced straight from a deep Phil Collins bootleg.  So in short – the backlash is over; can we start hyping this stuff again? Please?

Games – Heartlands

Games – Strawberry Skies

Games – Shadows In Bloom

JFK: The Assassination of Democracy

Pitchfork 2010 Gift Guide

Pitchfork Review – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (10.0) – I give the review a 7.6

Paul McCartney More Advanced Than John Lennon

The Who Concert Disaster – 12/3/79