Carpe Musica

I have been considering doing some sort of "Best of the Decade" list. Not sure if it would be best artists, songs, or both. One thing I know for sure is that Radiohead is in my opinion the best/most influential band of this decade. With Kid A (2000), Amnesiac (2001), Hail To The Thief (2003), and In Rainbows (2007) all coming out in the span, I can declare the award with unbelievable certainty. Radiohead was even featured in my favorite South Park episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die" (aired in 2001).

A few months ago Thom Yorke stated that he, and Radiohead were done producing albums because he was afraid they had peaked and were drained of all which they could provide musically. Since then however, the band has released a couple singles and announced that they have begun work on another album! I can not wait to see what they have in store for us in the upcoming decade. Below I have provided three either covered or remixed Radiohead links:

John Mayer- Kid A (cover)
Radiohead- Idioteque (BBC Remix)
Radiohead- Nude (Holy Fuck Remix)

Here are some fresh remixes to check out, including a Wale "Pretty Girls" remix and my favorite being the Talib Kwali/Geo Remix:

KRS-One & Buckshot- Oh Really (Remix f. Talib Kweli & Geo of Blue Scholars)

Wale ft. Gucci Mane- Pretty Girls (DJ Apt One Remix)

FrankMusik & Don Diablo Feat. Ish- Confusion Girl (The Name Is...)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Heads Will Roll (Digiraatii Dance Til You're Dead Remix)

just.one.duran- Shake that Around the World (Ying Yang Twins vs. Daft Punk)
just.one.duran- Day N' Feel (Kid Cudi vs. Santiago and Bushido)

Sufjan Stevens's most popular song "Chicago" now has three different, very appealing remixes floating around the internet. Speaking of Chi-Town, that was a huge win for Bear's fans tonight. I'd say that was the best MNF game to watch this whole season. Might have even extended Lovie Smith's life as Bears HC for another year...but we'll just have to see. My superbowl picks are Charger's vs. Eagles with the Charger's coming out on top. Back to Sufjan though, after listening to each of the the versions a few times I thought my favorite was the acoustic but I've decided its a little too similar to the original so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the adult contemporary version is the best of the three. Grab them all right here and drop a comment below including your pick to go to/win the Superbowl and also which "Chicago" version you prefer:

Chicago (Acoustic)
Chicago (Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version)
Chicago (Multiple Personality Disorder Version)

So every year dating back to 07 DJ Earworm takes the most popular 25 tracks of the year (according to Billboard) and mashes them into one song. Though this sounds impossibly hard, he actually does a real nice job with it. Here is his latest one for 2009:

DJ Earworm- United State of Pop 2009 (Mashup of the Top 25 Hits of 2009, according to Billboard)

Here's a collection of rap/r&b singles I've been diggin lately amongst the tons I download from various other blogs/sources. The U-N-I song was brought to my attention by my blogmate "Carpe" and I duno why he hasn't posted it but props to him for finding it. The Jamie Foxx/Wayne track is gonna be the shit for New Years Eve parties to go along with the new White Panda Mixtape below...

U-N-I- Land of The Kings
Jamie Foxx- Straight To The Dance Floor (Feat. Lil Wayne)
Purple Monkey Sircus- FML
Drake- It's Been A Pleasure
J. Cole- Lights Please Remix (Produced by XV)
Kevin Cossom- U Know What U Doin ft. Pusha T

This past week I read that John Frusciante (guitarist, third from the right) has left quite possibly my favorite band of all time, THE Red Hot Chili Peppers. This broke my heart. I know all great things must come to an end, but I thought RHCP was exempt from this rule. NOTE: The band is not breaking up entirely, quite the opposite in fact; they are hard at work on a new album. Frusciante has left them before (in 1992 he was overwhelmed with the band's popularity and entered a heroin-addicted solo career). Once he had been rehabilitated, he returned to the band in 1999, and created: Californication, By The Way, and Stadium Arcadium. This is quite possibly the band's best stretch of albums. Either way it is very obvious the increase in music quality when Frusciante is the one melting faces. He is ranked 18th on Rolling Stone's "Best Guitarists of All-Time" list. Anyways, this article led me to listen to some of his solo stuff, one thing led to another and I compiled a few tracks to put on this post (one of which is by Frusciante, and the others being connected even though it is impossibly unobvious):

John Frusciante- Murderers
The Temper Trap- Sweet Disposition
Boards of Canada- Dayvan Cowboy
Telefon Tel Aviv- Farenheit Far Enough
Van She- Don't Fear The Reaper (Remake)

As promised, The White Panda has released their first official mixtape "Versus" just in time for New Years Eve. I wanted to post it as soon as possible so I haven't heard the whole thing through quite yet but I can tell you that even though some of the songs are not new, the ones the ones that are, are Fucking Awesome (notice the usage of capitalization, that's how serious I am). My personal favorite amongst the new ones is "Stay Fly Every Single Day." I'll be playin this all night on New Years and I'm gonna bet you might too.

The White Panda- "Versus (MixTape)"

There has been a lot of good stuff out there lately and here are some of my favorites, more to come soon:

Miike Snow- Cult Logic
Miike Snow- Silvia
Radiohead- Reckoner (The Twelves Remix)
Brand New- The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows
The Incomparable Shakespeare- Wonderwall ft. Oasis
The Game- Breakin Rules (feat. Busta Rhymes)
Wale- Stronger

I thought I'd listen to this a few times through before posting it. I'm a fan of this album even with the excessive autotuning...thats just wheezy's style right now and its clear he ain't changing. To quote him from his documentary, "I don't care about nobody else's thoughts." My favorites are: Da Da Da, On Fire, Drop the World, and Get A Life. Enjoy wheezy's "rock" album:

Lil Wayne- Rebirth (Deluxe Edition)

Check this out mah bradah!

This song is fucking awesome. It's the best track off of Xaphoon's (DJ for Chiddy Bang) first solo mixtape. Chiddy has already began work on their next mixtape, (or possibly album?) and Xaphoon Jones is the reason for their popularity which only continues to grow. Dude's got talent. You won't stop playing this ish:

Bob Marley/MGMT- I Wanna Know Now (Xaphoon Jones Remix)

A song from the man that brought you one of the most remixed songs of 2009, "1901" by Phoenix. This one is titled "Girlfriend" and though it probably won't sweep the internet the way 1901 did, it is definitely a track worthy of being in your library. Give it a listen:

Phoenix- Girlfriend

Here are a couple remixes involving LMFAO I came across recently. The first one remixes Kanye's "Paranoid" off 808's. The second is LMFAO's song "La La La" remixed by Hyper Crush. Both are pretty legit, rave-like remixes of songs which aren't to bad to start out with:

Kanye West- Paranoid (LMFAO Remix)
LMFAO- "La La La" (Hyper Crush Remix)

If you don't already have this track, download it immediately because you might be the last one to get your hands on it. Give it one listen and you will know what's up with this track. Self explanatory.

Lil Wayne- Drop The World (Feat. Eminem)

Here is a fresh remix of the classic song from the TV show Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This song really tickles my inner ear.

DJ Mustard - Fresh Prince Remix

The ILLZ is a sick new rapper who is definitely underground at the moment but my beliefs are that he will soon BLOW UP. This is intro on his new album and uses comparisons for his first album through none other than a throwback Jay Z interview. ILLZ, if you're gonna do this, you better not disappoint. Anyway he kills this track over a smooth beat that I cannot stop listening to. Stay on the lookout for ILLZ.

The ILLZ - The Appreciation

This picture is from their official release of "VS." which drops on the internet this Friday. Can not wait for that. In the mean time, here is they track which samples the popular indie band Beirut. As soon as that EP drops, you know it'll be up here. Stay on your toes.

Macklemore ft. Ryan Lewis- Irish Celebration

You might want to throw on a diaper before reading this post. Even though I know Scott MesCUDI has been partying his ass off since his album dropped, he decided to bust a flow over the Vampire Weekend song "Ottoman." The top up-and-coming rapper, over the best new band...what more can a music lover ask for. Thank you Cudi.

“Hello and Happy Holidays to everyone of my fans, hope u guys arnt ragin too much. SIKE! : ) peace and love from your bud, Cud”

Kid Cudi- Cudderisback.

And thank you to Confusion for letting me use your links in times of technical difficulty.

The White Panda is the Lance Armstrong of mixing music (and one more testicle). They take 2-3 well known songs, throw them into a blender, hit start, and by the end, they pour a homogeneous mixture of gold into a cup which happens to be your headphones. Their official site is http://www.thewhitepanda.com/ and they claim to be releasing a mixtape by the end of the year. Keep on the lookout for that, and in the mean time here are a few of my favorites:

What Lonely Girls Do- Lil Jon vs. Eminem vs. Ocean Lab
Eminem Front- Eminem vs. The Who vs. Clipse
Army Of Yeah- Wiz Khalifa vs. Umek vs. Beltek vs. Usher
Golden Encore- OneRepublic vs. Jay-Z
What You Know About Little Secrets- Passion Pit vs. T.I.

The new Lupe Fiasco mixtape Enemy of the State is finally here. Happy Thanksgiving to all. Lupe got real pissed off recently that he wasn't included on MTV's top 10 MCs and rightfully so. To not include Lupe on this list is plain stupid. To not include him in the top 5 is just plain stupid. He definitely takes out his frustrations on this HOT new mixtape. Enjoy

P.S. YES!! Lupe goes off on top of one of my favorite Radiohead Songs, The National Anthem....SICKKKK

Lupe Fiasco - Enemy of the State

WOW! Another one of my favorite bands, The Cold War Kids, just came out with a new song off their upcoming EP Behave Yourself. The EP releases on January 19th, 2010. Just another tremendously talented band that you need to be listening to.

Cold War Kids - Audience of One

Though I know it is very short, everyone must hear this mash up. Such a sick fucking combo.

Blink 182 vs Lil Wayne & Birdman vs Train - Stuntin 182

So each week I am going to make a post on one of my favorite artists who I think may be under the radar of you Carpe heads. Up first is one of my personal favorites: The Shins. This indie band was formed in New Mexico of all places, and first received some attention when they went on tour with Modest Mouse back in 2000. They were then featured in the movie Garden State which won Soundtrack of The Year in 2004. I tried to pick some from each of the album, so if you notice a slight change in style, that's why. Relish.

New Slang
Phantom Limb
Australia
Mine's Not A High Horse
So Says I
The Past and Pending

Came across this song 'Trippy' featuring Cudder just because I listen to all things Cudi. Initially it seemed slow, but after a few listens I was trippin' as hard as the chorus. Very addictive track. I'm also throwing in a new one from CL-SICK as a bonus because the song just goes off. And finally, an instant classic from Stunnaman himself, Drugs. From Trippy to MDMA...Thizz or Die you BEEZY.

Rich Hill ft. Kid Cudi- Trippy
CL-SICK- M.D.M.A.
Stunnaman- Drugs

So I'm thinking we are going to start a new series of posts every now and then labled MASHpotatoes. These posts will consist of songs mashed together which is a popular trend in today's remixes. For the first annual MASHpotatoe post I cooked up these songs and dished them out for you guys to devour.

PS - Biggie sounds good on the Miley Cyrus soung...weird. And sorry for the overload of MGMT samplings...I just thought they were both really cool songs.

PSS - The Songs I Wanna know and Stuntin Like Atari are mashed by none other than Xaphoon Jones. He part of the crazy talented group Chiddy Bang. Check our very first post if you missed out on them.

Biggie vs. Miley Cyrus - Party and Bullshit in the USA
MGMT vs. Bob Marley - I Wanna Know
Lil Wayne, Drake vs Britney Spears - Money She Bl3w
Justice vs. Ratatat - We Are Your Friends
Jurassic 5 vs. Snoop Dogg, Pharrell - Hot Schoolyard
Lil Wayne vs. Theodore Grams - Stuntin Like Atari

Here are some great tracks. Although they are not brand new songs if you aren't familiar with some of these bands you really should check them out. I'm really feeling all of these.

The Kooks - Kids (MGMT Acoustic Cover)
Hyperstory - A Happening
Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
Albumleaf - Twenty-Two Fourteen

As promised here is some more material off The Grouch and Eligh's album Say G&E. This track slows it down a little bit and just shows the lyrical genius between the duo.The album is produced almost entirely by Eligh who brings his style in with a dreamy soundscape of beats and relaxing sonic rhythms. I encouraged you before and I will do it again. You should go get this album.

The Grouch and Eligh - Old Souls (feat. Blu & Flying Lotus)

My heart stopped when I was watching this live. Jahvid Best gets launched into the air after hurdling a defender for the touchdown. Concussion ensued. Clean hit or not? Leave a comment.

First single to leak off their upcoming album. These guys always stand out with catchy-ass beats, and jaw dropping lyrics. There isn't a crew I would rather have come over to go "dum ditty dum dum" with.

The Pack- Hoes In This House

A dope new hit featuring Yukmouth and Turf Talk, from the deceased bay area legend. RIP Mac Dreezy.

Mac Dre Ft. Yukmouth & Turf Talk- Gangsta Mac

Great, somewhat old song off Chip's mixtape. Can't wait for the callabo cd featuring these two Cleveland natives which is currently under construction.

Chip Tha Ripper- Ask About Me (Feat Kid Cudi) (Prod. By Rami & Dez)

Self-proclaimed "Wale Ovechkin" got to meet his brother, Alexander. This dude has made a great case for best rapper of the rookie class. Make sure to buy his new album "Attention Deficit" when it drops next week.

Wale- Wale Revere

You must check this song out. There comes a time in everyone's life when they need to put on their best "thiz face" and rock out to some great bay area rap. The Grouch and Eligh are at the top of the list for Bay Area rap and absolutely kill it with this song and the entire album Say G&E. The Grouch and Eligh, for those that don't know, are members of the underground hip hop group called The Living Legends. Seriously if you haven't heard of these guys before or are unfamiliar with the Bay Area sound...Check it out. More to come soon off this album and from the duo The Grouch and Eligh. Shout out to Big Brother for finding this one.

The Grouch and Eligh (ft. Slug) - Boom

Posted about Kizza a little while ago but this is another song you really need to check out off his new mixtape The Wizard of Iz. Really catchy chorus that will get you singing along with it. And do I even have to say it? Ok I'll say it anyway...Weezy kills this.

Izza Kizza - It's Going Down ft. Lil Wayne and Birdman

This guy is crazy talented. Check out his creativity and uniqueness on Jimmy Fallon. A download link for the song is provided below.

Andrew Bird - Anonanimal