Wet Hot Australian Summer

It's the middle of winter here in Country NSW, so I've been making summersong playlists to get me through the rainsoaked days. There's something delightful about sitting in front of a roaring fire listening to festival music.

Into it:


1. Hilltop Hoods (feat. Sia) - I Love It.

What can I say, I DO love it. It's just a quintessentially summerish song to me - an ode to living your dream, being true, wank, wank, wank. Hilltop Hoods are, IMO, Australia's premier Hip Hop act, plus I really like Sia's voice, and I love her attitude and personality, but I don't really love her music, so for me, this song is full of win.

2. Noah and the Whale - L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.

This song is totally The Kinks' Lola sung by Tom Petty, but I don't care. If you compress a few of the letters, you can spell my name in the chorus. Go on, try it.

3. Architecture in Helsinki - Heart it Races

I actually had a different AiH song in this slot (Contact High) but I woke up this morning with this song in my head, which is weird because I didn't think I actually liked AiH. They're the kind of pretentious twats you only find in Melbourne (or, I'd wager... Williamsburg or something) but this song is catchy and they avoid their usual 'we can play 18 instruments, ask us how' trap.

4. The Wombats - Jump Into the Fog

I have a bit of a thing for Northerners, let's just get that out of the way straight off the bat. I saw The Wombats at a festival last year and they kept cracking jokes that very few people got. We thought it was weird, but thoroughly enjoyed their set anyway. Later, when a well-known wanker xmax Skip Hop act came on, the crowd realised that the womblebats were taking the piss out of them. Appreciation tenfold.

Even without that, you have to enjoy a song that uses phrases like: 'I just hope it's your brains that splatter, not mine', 'I feel the day deserves a truly sordid end' and my personal favourite, this sexy little number: 'I believe in these dirty little wicked games.' Enjoy, foreigners, enjoy.

You should probably check out their song 'Let's Dance to Joy Division'.

5. Seeker Lover Keeper - Even Though I'm a Woman

We've all been there, right?

This is kind of an Aussie Indie Lady Supergroup, incongruous as that sounds. I'm not that into ladysingers at the best of times, but the harmonies and shit are really pretty, and, well, the song speaks to me.

6. Urthboy - The Signal

This is an oldie but a goodie, this is from 2007, but it has a real old school feel to me, probably the scratching (haha!) but really, it's just a chilled out skipsong. Yeah.

7. Faker - This Heart Attack

If you don't like Robert Smith's voice, probably skip this one. The heart stopping conceit kind of shits me, but I guess if the theme of this mix wasn't Summertime, it would probably be Catchy as Fuck.

8. Grouplove - Tongue Tied 

Can you believe these guys are Yanks? Me, neither. Unapologetically retro-sounding, this song is another celebration, doesn't it just transport you back to your suburban teens, screaming around in the back of your mates' car, singing along to the radio at the top of your lungs, thinking that you'll be doing this exact thing with these exact people for the rest of your life, and that it sounds like a pretty radical plan? No? Just me, then? Moving right along... 

9. Drapht - Rapunzel

This song brings about much more recent memories. D-rapht closed the evening at the abovementioned festival featuring The Wombats. It was in Canberra and it redefined the meaning of cold for me, and at the very tippy top of the night, Drapht (not the wanker skip hop act) was playing in a little tent. It was completely packed out, but I squirmed and boob-shimmied my way to the front where I jumped around until circulation was restored to my idiotic converse-shod feet.

The song? It's catchy and clever (if you can understand all of the Aus references) and, well, my nickname in High School was Rapunzel. Never threw any phones, though. 

10. Ball Park Music - It's Nice to be Alive

Another charmingly retro number, it's easy to be seduced by the sweet sing-a-long vibe and positivity and, frankly, it IS nice to be alive, especially in the summertime. Plus, the opening line is a cracker. 

11. Redcoats - Dreamshaker 

For me, a lot of the music released in 2011 was really derivative. No one really agrees with me on this, but i get a mad Tool circa 1996 vibe from this song. If you ignore the vocals and sing 'I don't want it, I just need it' a la Stinkfist, it rocks a bit harder. 

12. Blue Juice - Vitriol

All of Blue Juice's songs kind of sound the same, and I guess this is the first one that penetrated my skull. Their sound is fun. 

13. Pez (feat. 360 & Hailey Cramer) - The Festival Song

This one is a few years old now, but it's a keeper. I think I would like this one for the sample alone (I guess it's a sample of a sample?), but Pez has managed to encapsulate not only the experience of a Falls Festival, but the mood, smell, feel as well. 360 is a mega douche, but still... two thumbs up.

A review of "Blackberry Jams"

First things first: Kaitlyn, way to go for starting us off with an excellently themed selection of songs.
You clearly have not let your music biting teeth grow dull during this seven year hiatus.

Now, enough jerking off...let's do this...


Love them or hate them, Journey is catchy as fuck and will always start off any sort of mix tape spectacularly; they even managed to make Usher tolerable.
Nailed it.

"Jumanji" is fun as hell. I always appreciate a talented female rapper and rap with interesting instrumentation and this track has both.

"Summerscent", with its drums, guitar and those horns...wow. Nothing wrong with on the nose, Kaitlyn. It's like the Red Hot Chili Peppers wrote the background for these guys to rap over. Great stuff.

Kaitlyn, I'm apologizing now because I plan on biting this song for every party I have from this point on. Take comfort in the fact that it was you who delivered this jam unto me...but also know that I'm going to deny even knowing you if someone asks me about it. Just a heads up, boo.

You lost me a bit with "High For This" (I think it has something to do with being on drugs for sex, which, sorry, tends to make me think the sex isn't going to be that good...because you need to be high to enjoy it), got me right back on track with "Jungle". While not as energetic as the first part of the album, it still has a very good energy to it.

"Golden Train" is a really good remix. I would pump this in a club, if I owned one.

"Closer Than This" was a tad more retro than I enjoy, but that's just me. Good addition, even I didn't love it.

Okay, I have never, ever liked any R&B ever. So I'm just going to not say anything. I am glad to hear you and Frank are dating though. Congrats.

One of my problems with rap is the endless boring litany of the things rappers have/want/covet/would kill someone else for, but the focus of this track, the laser like focus...on sunglasses...is brilliant. I'd like to think that A-Trak might be taking a shot at these more typical rappers who would love to take a moment of your time to tell you how many Bentleys they own and in which colors...but I don't know his music well enough. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt though, as this was a really fun song with a cool arrangement behind his lyrics.

"Treading Water" has a wonderfully summery feel and some pretty funny lyrics. Excellent addition.

"Wedding Crasher" - More R&B...enjoy.

There's something a bit creepy about "Je Pense A Toi" that makes it feel less summertime and more...I don't know...dying in the summertime...maybe it has something to do with the image of these two blind people singing it. Thanks for that Kaitlyn.

I didn't hate "It Fees Good To Be Around You", but I certainly didn't love it. This is going to sound weird, but I notice these things: the samples used in the song bugged me. They threw me out of the groove they were going for and that is unfortunate. Not awful, but I'd like to hear a version without the samples.

Surprise, surprise, not a fan of Reggae BUT with all that annoying plonky dub shit removed from this version, I actually found myself enjoying the unforced ebullience of Marley's voice. He really had something. I think of the saw-toothed synths make this track a little darker than it should be, based on its subject matter, but, hey, that may have been what they were going for. Interesting track, nice choice.

While a perfectly acceptable ending to a really solid album, "Next To Me" was a bit overly sappy for my angry, cynical music tastes. I'm sure people less hateful than I will completely enjoy this.


The first four songs on this album are rock solid, the perfect placement of the perfect summer songs and there is a hearty handful of other great tracks on here as well. I understand that people like R&B and that people listen to it a lot in the summer, but, sorry, it's as inaccessible and annoying to me as Country music. Again, that's my problem, not yours.
Overall, I'm happy to pump most of these tracks throughout the summer and consider this an excellent reintroduction to what it truly means...to bite the music.
Way to be, Kaitlyn.

Summer Playlist: Blackberry Jams

Sorry Paul, but I didn't want to wait.  It's been unseasonably chilly in New York this June, and I'm trying to do my part in bringing on the sunshine.

When I was a kid there were blackberries that grew in the woods behind my house, and one summer my mom and I picked about a million of them and made jam. It was the BADDEST ASSEST JAM of all time.  We and everyone we knew ate like kings for an entire summer.  This playlist represents my audiological recreation of that experience.

Cover image was jacked from www.cre8tiveforces.com.  Sweet original content theirs; janky modifications my own.

Tracklist:

1. Journey Without You (3LAU & Acetronik Mashup) – Journey & David Guetta feat. Usher

Allow me to usher you into this journey with a mashup.  I can’t claim to know who 3LAU and Acetronik are, but this song is so brilliant I don’t actually care.

2. Jumanji – Azealia Banks

My favorite filthy-mouthed New York rapper rants in lyrical circles about everything summer’s all about: steel drums, cabanas, and a long weave out the limo.  Nyeah, nyeah, nyeah.

3. Summerscent – Kids These Days

This one’s a little on the nose for a summer playlist, but the dippy, jazzy instrumentals on this track blow through the frenetic lyrics like breeze through a break dance circle.

4. This Head I Hold – Electric Guest

Electric Guest gives you something to bop to at your next block party.  Try to keep up with the handclaps, and ignore the lyrical lamentations about how empty you’re gonna feel tomorrow morning.

5. High For This – Ellie Goulding

Another drug ballad!  This song is off the Weeknd’s first mixtape from two summers ago, but Ellie Goulding takes the foggy, predatory lyrics and flips them into something deeply sexy.

6. Jungle – Emma Louise

It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.  Emma Louise is from Australia, a country with spiders the size of dinner plates.  If she leads you into the jungle, bring extra mosquito netting.  And a bat.

7. Golden Train (Royal Palms Mix) – Penguin Prison

This song is the audio equivalent of pastels and popsicles and San Francisco in the late ‘80s.

8. Closer Than This (Viceroy Remix) – St. Lucia

Fun fact: St. Lucia is actually from Brooklyn.  Also, synths are cool again.

9. Back – Frank Ocean

FRANK OCEAN IS MY BOYFRIEND

10. Ray Ban Vision (feat. CyHi da Prynce) – A-Trak

Full disclosure: I have little respect for CyHi “different exotic fishes” da Prynce as an artist, but this A-Trak collaboration is hilarious.  It is for serious all about sunglasses.

11. Treading Water – Alex Clare

It’s hot out there!  Let’s go for a dubswim.

12. Wedding Crasher – Terius Nash

Summer weddings are supposed to be joyous, but The-Dream has something to get off his chest.

13. Je Pense A Toi – Amadou et Mariam

Amadou and Mariam are a blind couple from Mali.  They have been thinking about you.

14. It Feels Good to Be Around You – Air France

Air France has been thinking about you too, but they're a bit too summer-sleepy to get into detail.

15. Sun Is Shining (Brand Blank Dubstep Remix) – Bob Marley

A new take on a classic.

16. Next to Me – Emeli Sande

Sometimes summer love has staying power.  Let’s end on a high note.

Dropbox It Like It's Hotbox

All right friends.
I've created and shared a Dropbox folder enetiled, fittingly, "Bite The Music".
In it, you'll find a folder for each of you and all the submissions (with art) from the original version OF Bite The Music.

Next step, scheduling, unless anyone has any other great ideas...?

P.S. The old stuff is currently uploading (slowly), so it's not all there yet.

Stolen!

My idea has been stolen already. Damn.

Wu-Tang’s GZA Teaming Up With Neil DeGrasse Tyson To Make A Hip-Hop Record About Space

Who spilled the beans?!?

PS - I do love how Paul transitioned us from LiveJournal to Blogger about 2 years after everyone else in the world transitioned from Blogger to Tumblr. Trust me, it's much better this way.

Logo

You guys like?

Guidelines?

I'm totally in. I've got a least 2 leftover ideas from the old days that I've been burning to create.

I'd like to suggest these guidelines for submission, going with the idea that we are using Dropbox:

1. All tracks must be titled (song title and band) and numbered in the order that you want them to be heard.

2. A cover image must be created and included with your tracks.

3. But liner notes and/or additional images/art/video/etc are optional.

I also happen to use Spotify on a daily basis and would be happy to post any albums I make on there as well. Does anyone else use this? Or would anyone else like an invitation to Spotify?

http://www.spotify.com/us/ipad/

Stoked, 

Christina

Update!

All right, I just sent out seven invitations: Chris, Phil, Will, Gia, Jade, Josh and Kaitlyn.
If you don't see the invite in your e-mail, contact me some other way.
WOO!

A Decision...Perhaps?

After speaking with some folks, I'm suggesting that, since we are all busy and grown up and taxes and etc. (except for me) that we use Dropbox to present music to one another BUT, in an attempt to keep this more interesting than "listen to these mp3's I put in a folder" themes and custom art and anything else you want to throw in is still required. That sound fair to everyone?

And, speaking of everyone, everyone needs to get in touch with me to I can make them authors...anyone know how I can do that?

Toolz

Going off Kaitlyn's suggestion, I've added a link to Dropbox to the right.

I've also added a link to Paint.net, a really cool art creation tool that should help out with...well, art creation.
If there are any other helpful links you think should be there...become an author and fucking put them there yourself.

Aaaaaawwwwwww SHIT! (air horn)

Well, folks...let's get bitin'...

First order of business, contact me so I can make you an author on the site.

Next, perhaps a rough schedule of release?
I understand that, in the past...seven years or so some things might have shifted in our lives, but that is no excuse...Kaitlyn.

Third, any suggestions for new members?
No fattys, please.

All, let's DO THIS!