TOot! TOot!

Some people didn’t get my original bite of the music, so here it is.

I was really happy to find this cd tucked into a box when I moved last year. It’s a nice slice of the music I was listening to all those years ago. The tenuous theme is modes of transport. It’s actually a little bit morbid, there are lot of crashes mentioned.  

Interestingly, a lot of these acts are ones that I never listen to anymore, so it’s been a nice rediscovery of a lost moment in time. This album was originally presented without comment, but below are some notes from 2012.

1. America - Horse with No Name 

Meh, I just like it.

2. Barenaked Ladies - Brian Wilson

I really love BNL, can’t help it, and I’ve always loved Brian Wilson, misunderstood genius that he is. This song actually reminds me of San Francisco. The first time I went abroad by myself, I went out one night in San Fran and went to the big Tower Records and bought the album this is on, then walked back to my hostel listening to it (discman = instant musical gratification, take that ipod).

3. Ben Gibbard - Recycled Air

Obviously, I’m a lover of words, and this song is just unapologetically romantic and sexy to me. Something about Ben Gibbard’s lyrics (I watch the patchwork farms slow fade into the ocean's arms - GAH!) combined with his swoony, swoony voice… excuse me, I’ll be in my bunk.

4. Better Than Ezra - A Lifetime

Even after all of these years, this song gets to me. Better Than Ezra deserve more credit.

5. Cake - Stickshifts & Safety Belts

I dunno, don't really care for this one anymore.

6. The Decemberists - Apology Song

I just think that if someone got my bicycle racked, this song would go a long way towards making up for it. I’m not really one for naming inanimate objects (although, all of my vehicles are called Linnell and all of A’s are called Flans, but that’s different. I started by naming my Vespa Linnell because I ride him. Eh? Eh? No? Not really?), I think Madeline is a sweet name for a bicycle.

7. Eskimo Joe - Car Crash

I still listen to a lot of Eskies, and am working on another mix for you guys featuring them. Eskimo Kav, the singer, just has a killer voice. This is one of the morbid songs, I guess.

8. Gavin DeGraw - Chariot

GDG was MASSIVELY overplayed back in the day, and I think people think he’s a bit of a sell-out, but I saw him live around this time, and he blew me away. To be honest, I don’t really know what the hell this song is about, for me, Chariots are irrevocably linked with Christianity, so…yeah.

9. Groove Armada - Madder

Oh, Groove Armada, I’ve missed you. I didn’t realise it until I heard this song again, but I’ve missed you! This song takes me back to my club days. I used to go to this Britpop club on William St and although this doesn’t actually fit into the genre, they always played this song because it’s so much fun to dance to. My boyfriend and his friends used to make up funny actions to songs (Disco 2000 being the best example - I still can’t hear any version of that song without doing the actions) and this song works because of the way the story progresses.

10. Jason Mraz - Plane

Mraz is another one who suffered from massive overplay back in the day. Last year (this year? maybe) I went and saw him at the opera house. It was just him and another dude and they just played the shit out of his stuff. He has a shockingly good voice, when it’s just him and a piano, and he can kick it on jazz or even opera. Dude. So good.

I guess I have some familiarity with flying away from the people I love, so even though I’m not sure what he means by ‘taste these teeth please’, I can get behind this one.

11. John Linnell - South Carolina

*cough*linnell*cough*

12. Mike Doughty - Fire Truck

I don’t appreciate this song anymore, although I still have a LOT of time for Mike Doughty.

By way of proving that I can turn anything into a story about me, I recently picked up the last of my firefighting gear. I love the tough-girl boots they issue (although they're in men's sizes and the littlest ones are still too big for me) and everyone appreciates a good hard hat and flash hood.

I'm acutely terrified of being called out to a MVA and finding a smashed up motorcycle and having to try to save the rider, and I had nightmares for a week after doing overrun exercises, but probably the most immediately annoying thing about being a chick firefighter is being too short to get onto the back of the firetruck without assistance.

 

13. Neutral Milk Hotel - In an Aeroplane Over the Sea

I don’t really know much Neutral Milk Hotel, but I do like a song that incorporates the theramin. What can I say? It’s sweet and romantic, and I was pretty emotional in my mid-20s.

14. They Might Be Giants - Destination Moon

I will always love this song. Always.

15. Radiohead - Killer Cars

‘Don’t die on the motorway’. 

Sometimes I think that the late 90s was the best time for music, ever, handsdown. But then, I also legitimately worry about all of the amazing new music that is released every year, because I already listen to music for several hours each day, and still don’t have time for everything that I love, let alone all of this new stuff. 

These are the thoughts that keep me awake at night.

Also, does anyone else hear this song and think of the Monty Python skit with Long Cat?

16. Rhett Miller - The El

Did anyone else notice that Rhett Miller got SUPER, SUPER HOT for the duration of promoting this album, and then went back to normal? So weird, right? At least once a year, I become obsessed with The Instigator and Pete Yorn’s Music for the Morning After (the two are linked in my mind for some reason), and listen to them on repeat for a week or two.

I’ve always wanted to go to Chicago. Maybe next year.

17. Darren Hanlon - The Kickstand Song

Oh, Daz. DAZ!!!

Daz always tells the story of being in Canada and meeting a guy who told him all about his uncle inventing the kickstand. Heather and I were once at Kareoke and we met Jimmy Barnes’ nephew and it has always stayed with me as strange that someone would think that the most interesting thing about themselves is someone that they are related to. It’s a good song, though, and DAZ!!!

18. TISM - Greg! The Stop Sign

TISM (This Is Serious Mum) are one of the greatest, most unappreciated Australian bands of all time. There are at least 58 people in the band, and they always perform in masks or balaclavas. Sometimes, they will wait until everyone is in a venue and then trundle a small stage out to the back of the room and perform there.

This song has an hilarious faux-techno thing going on that I find really endearing.

19. Tripod - Astronaut

At the time this CD was made, my flatmate and I were mad about Tripod, and listened to this song constantly, singing along at the top of our lungs. 

I suppose you should know that Tripod are three comedians who sing. At their live shows, they take themes / phrases and preferred song style from the audience, go backstage for an hour, and then come back and sing a song using those phrases. This is one of those songs. I can’t exactly remember, but I think the phrases are ‘Red Herring’ ‘Japanese’ ‘Astronaut’ and ‘Boxing’.

Anyway, they’re still around and they’re still hilarious.

20. Ben Lee - Float On

My goodness, I have so much love for Ben Lee. When I was a teenager (and he was too, I guess) his band had this video for one of their songs (16) where they beat the crap out of a wilderness society koala. Man, I loved Noise Addict.

This song is a cover, but I think BL nails it. From memory, it’s pretty similar to the original (Modest Mouse?), actually, Ben Folds also did a great cover of this, with Walter Meanie playing the DVD cover for percussion. Ah, good times in Australian Music.

It’s a bit sad, but I like the bit when he’s counting in and screws it up.

21. The Bluetones - Autophilia or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Car

I do love a good musical Kubrickian reference, and as already established, the 90s and Britpop are where my heart lie. That and 2000s Ausmusic, but that’s another story.

This song checks a few boxes for me - audible breathing, check, doo wah doo’s, check, no attempt to americanise singing voice, CHECK.

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.

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