Winter Mixtape At Passion of the Weiss

I've spent 90% of my life in Canada, the top exporter of politeness, snow and mediocre pop-punk, and yet I've never made a winter mixtape before this year. Summer mixes, sure, but a cold weather mix is unexplored territory.
I recently coordinated a virtual murderer's row of music writers to select their favourite wintertime tunes for a mixtape over at the Passion. Thanks to Jeff Weiss, Nate Patrin, Zilla, Douglas, Matt Shea, Dan Love and Renato for picking an amazing tracklist and contributing insightful writeups. Props to Sach O for the stellar mixing and for his excellent picks. You can check the tracklisting and stream the mix below.

1. Boards of Canada - 1969

2. Bang Bang - Two Fingers

3. Pantha du Prince - Stick by my Side

4. Royksop - Remind Me

5. Beach House - Apple Orchard

6. Bjork - Immature

7. Prodigy & Nas - Self Conscience

8. Blurry Drones - Winter Weather

9. Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues

10. Radiohead - Airbag

11. Wu-Tang Clan - Jah World

12. The Cinematic Orchestra ft. Roots Manuva - All Things to all Men

13. Walkmen - Blizard of 96

14. Real Estate - Fake Blues

15. A Guy Called Gerald - Hekkle & Koch

16. Doves - Black & White Town

17. The Chi-Lites - Coldest days of my life

18. The Grateful Dead - Cold Rain & Snow

You can read the writeups and download the tape here. Please share if you like it!

"I AM NOT A NUMBER!": My Ongoing Obsession with "The Prisoner"

The Prisoner is a 1967 TV miniseries created by Patrick McGoohan and George Markstein. It follows the travails of an unnamed British secret agent who resigns from his position one day, only to wake up in a mysterious village separated from normal society. The Village is populated with people who are referred to only by numbers; the agent goes by Number Six. Six discovers that the so-called Number One is trying to discover Six's reasons for resigning, a task largely carried out by a rotating lineup of "Number Twos". The enigmatic higher-ups utilize a full array of insane technology to monitor Agent Six and force him to confess his motivation for resigning from his position.

Without spoiling anything, let me say The Prisoner is incredibly well-scripted and directed. The ridiculous special effects only add to its charm. This is a series where the greatest threat is a sentient white balloon named Rover that basically engulfs and suffocates anyone who opposes Number One.



Some of the acting and styling feels a bit camp now but Goohan plays it all completely straight and pulls it off. He is perfect for a role he largely wrote for himself, refining James Bond into a kind of impossible cool, complete with kung fu skills and impeccable dress sense. Tell me Pat didn't rock the shawl collar.


I'm only three episodes in and I'm hooked. Scientists: It's 2010, how come our phones don't look like this yet?

“Moonlight Mile” – The Subtle Influence of the Rolling Stones on Real Estate

This Real Estate album is frequently compared to Flying Nun pop and early Yo La Tengo, something which singer/guitarist Martin Courtney has copped to and it shows. So I get these comparisons but listening to this record, it striking how much the album’s dual guitar sound owes to the Rolling Stones’ combo of Keith Richards and a rotating roster of guitarist sidemen. The Stones’ influence interests me more because it’s less readily apparent. RE don’t do the uptempo rockers that the Stones could play in their sleep in their 63-79 heyday, but the band's ethereal guitar pop is definitely indebted to the guitar interplay of Mick/Keith ballads.

Listen to “Moonlight Mile” off 1971’s Sticky Fingers. "Moonlight Mile" is a bit unusual in the canon of Glimmer Twin songs, because Keith wrote the guitar riff but doesn’t play it on the record. Here Mick Jagger plays the song’s Oriental-sounding acoustic riff while Mick Taylor spins out fluid electric riffs.

Download: The Rolling Stones – Moonlight Mile

Juxtapose “Moonlight” with Real Estate’s “Snow Days”. Guitarist Matthew Mondanile and Courtney trade off chiming, circular guitar lines that weave thick tapestries around each other.

Download: Real Estate – Snow Days

They employ another sonic tactic borrowed from early 70s Stones, a dense yet never-overwhelming layering of melodies. Listen to the way the strummed guitars intertwine with the double-tracked vocals, how the electric guitar plays off Martin Courtney’s voice. Just beautiful.

Here’s a relevant bit of text from Courtney on his classic radio influences, via Pitchfork:

MC: We try to be influenced by really classic songwriting, so I can see the oldies influence. We try to write songs that are just classic pop songs and then stretch out certain sections of them to make it a little bit jammier or to emphasize things that wouldn't normally be emphasized in your average classic rock song, to try to make it a little bit different or a little bit more up-to-date. You can write a pop song and put a bunch of effects on everything, and it'll make it sound a little bit more modern. We just try to keep everything sounding sort of spaced out and underwater.

Bonus: An incredible version of “Moonlight Mile” by the 5th Dimension. This is much more emotionally direct and bombastic version of the song, but damn, it’s kind of heartrending. Even if they change “the head full of snow” to “sky full of snow”, it just makes the song more seasonally appropriate.

Also, isn’t this alternate Russian cover for Sticky Fingers 10 kinds of awesome?

Best of ‘09 Writeups at Passion of the Weiss.

I wrote several writeups for Passion of the Weiss’ 50 best albums and 50 best hip-hop songs. For the albums list, I contributed writeups of Oh No’s Dr. No’s Ethiopium, Playboy Tre’s Liquor Store Mascot, Bibio’s Ambivalence Avenue, the Flaming Lips’ Embryonic and Javelin’s Jamz & Jemz. On the best hip hop songs list, I did Big Boi’s “Shine Blockas” and Blu’s “GNG BNG”.

Click my writeup of Oh No’s Dr. No’s Ethiopium to read the albums list:

The second installment of Oh No’s series of world music beat tapes, Ethiopium really should’ve been called Further Exodus Into Unknown Rhythms. Here the still-breathing Michael Jackson creates 38 minutes of cervical-snapping beats sampling exclusively from the Ethiopian Golden Age of the 1960s and 70s. Pulling out odd snippets of horns, otherworldly vocals, strings and guitars and pasting them to classic breaks and gritty drums, the tracks range from straight loops to sophisticated chops.  Despite the inherently limited theme, there’s a lot of sonic variety, with beats running the gamut from dark bangers like “Concentrate” and Scary,” to Highlands headnodders like “Melody Mix” and album highlight “The Pain.” While big brother Madlib receives most of the accolades, Oh No has quietly continued to perfect his craft.  The breaks never outstay their welcome and in just under 40 minutes, Ethiopium takes you on a breathless and blunted ride through the Horn of Africa.

And click the excerpt of my “Shine Blockas” review to read the best songs list!

Somehow, Big Boi, one half of the most popular rap group of all-time, has leaked fantastic album material for over a year-plus and still Sir Luscious Lead Foot can’t get a release date. The latest gem from Daddy Fat Sacks’s solo album, “Shine Blockas” combines Gucci’s infectious energy and Big Boi’s unmatched flow over a superbly soulful beat with a distinctly Southern trunk thump. Gucci and Big make a natural pair, given the two’s mutual love for goofy similes and metaphors. Big awkwardly sprays like a skunk, while Gucci strives for Tyler Perry sales. Producer Cutmaster Swiff spit-shines Harold Melvin’s vocals until they glisten like a fresh coat of candy paint on a Caddie. Where Kanye used the same sample on Jay-Z’s “This Can’t Be Life” to convey sadness and lamentation, Big Boi turns it into a playful, triumphant kiss-off to the haters. Of course they can’t close the safe–there’s too much money in it.

Man, I can’t believe it’s 2010. Shana Tovah, y’all!

Popscene at Passion of the Weiss: Elastica - "Elastica"

Peep my latest popscene feature over at Passion of the Weiss, about Elastica's self-titled debut. Justine Frischmann is best known for driving Damon Albarn to write "Tender", but her band were pretty damn fantastic in their heyday too. Click the excerpt below to read the whole thing.

Elastica are thieves with taste, cribbing the best parts from their favourite Buzzcocks, Blondie and Wire records and refining them into spiky punk-pop gems. The band learned from the best to prize pithiness in songwriting, so they omit unnecessary bridges and repetitive hooks, running through 16 songs in 38 frenetic minutes. Never is it more evident than on sub-two- minute gems like “Annie” and the self-explanatory “Vaseline”. As with their influences, the singles are the best tracks: “Stutter” is a viciously dismissive kiss-off to an impotent boyfriend with a fantastic chorus, and “Connection” is a superbly simple and catchy tribute to either fame or love. Album tracks like the detached creep of “2:1” and the scathing “S.O.F.T.” show the band’s diversity, while Frischmann’s ’s icy cooing perfectly fits the band’s sharp, hooky playing.

Beats & Rhymes: Year In Review 2009 at Exclaim!

I penned a writeup of J Dilla’s Jay Stay Paid over at Exclaim for their annual year-end best of list. I’m not at liberty to reveal the album’s placement, click that excerpt below to read the whole list!

The second posthumous release by the late Detroit producer, the mostly instrumental Jay Stay Paid was constructed from J Dilla's unreleased beat tapes. Excellent features by the likes of Raekwon, MF Doom and Phat Kat break up the instrumentals, but the beats are the main attraction. Encompassing Dilla's love for Detroit techno, airy soul samples and vintage electronics, the album showcases James Yancey's stunning versatility, consistency and innovation as a producer. Jay Stay Paid is a worthy crowning ceremony for the king of beats.

Masta Ace & Edo G. Interview at Metal Lungies

I had the opportunity to interview with Edo G. and Masta Ace earlier this week for Metal Lungies. I haven’t heard the whole A&E album yet, but “Ei8ht Is Enough” is bananas, especially Edo’s second verse:

I can understand an ocean by looking at a raindrop/we everywhere, you in the same spot/I’ma make so you rappers never ever name drop

You can read the whole interview by clicking the excerpt below. This part of the conversation really stuck out to me:

What does it mean to be a rapper past the age of 30 in a genre that fetishizes youth so strongly?
MA: For me, I definitely understand the obsession with youth but I think it’s something hip-hop has to get over. It’s new territory, rappers turning 40 and plus. People don’t know how to handle or deal with it. What they’ve been used to doing is just ignoring dudes. In the past, the rappers from the 70s that got old, they just kinda disappeared because they weren’t part of the new industry. Which was high record sales, big budget videos. They missed that whole era. A lot of them disappeared because they weren’t that visible. They didn’t come up in the video era. People knew their records but they didn’t have that visual to go with it. Edo and I came up in the video era where people know what we look like. We’ve had videos all over the television. For the first time, we’re starting to reach that age where people want us to disappear. We refuse to crawl under a rock. We feel like we’ve still got something to say.