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Albums in heavy rotation:
I got this album in late December and didn’t get around to listening to it until this week. The Beastles is a nine track mashup of two of my favorite groups: the Beatles and the Beastie Boys. These aren’t exceptional mixes, but they’re fun nonetheless.
I don’t know the legal status of the album. As I write this, they’re available for download; I’m not sure how long that will last.
Solid (B-). Not as strong as the Grey Album, but entertaining for fans of both groups.
A mix of house, trip-hop, and latin lounge, the Brazilian Girls’ debut album will soon be playing at every self-conscious coffee shop and hipster make-out session.
Those with accounts can sample the album in the new Album of the Week section.
Solid (B). Nothing revolutionary, but a good listen.
Does any one reading this want me to enable private posts within the RSS feed? I can make it happen, but it’ll take a little bit of work and debugging (unfortunately, I cannot accomplish everything within a Wordpress plugin). I need to know if anyone would actually use this functionality before implementing it.
Some notes:
Version 0.2 of the Post Levels plugin has been released.
Two new functions were added:
An example for using the is_private() function is shown below:
<?php if (function_exists('is_private') && is_private()) : ?>
<span class="private">(private)</span>
<?php endif;?>
It is good style to check if the function exists before calling, in case the plugin is disabled for some reason.
Upcoming shows I plan on attending during the next three months (shows in bold are highly recommended):
| Date | Artist(s) | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 2/24 | Amon Tobin | Chop Suey |
| 2/26 | Aqueduct, Mates of State, Smoosh | Chop Suey |
| 3/02 | Brazilian Girls | Chop Suey |
| 3/03 | Heiruspecs | Suite G |
| 3/06 | The Futureheads | Crocodile |
| 3/07 | The Music, Kasabian | Neumo’s |
| 3/22 | Gift of Gab and Lateef | Chop Suey |
| 3/31 | Death From Above 1979 | Neumo’s |
| 4/01 | Dizzee Rascal | Neumo’s |
| 4/04 | Handsome Boy Modeling School, Buck 65 | Showbox |
| 4/14 | Atmosphere, Grayskull | Neumo’s |
| 4/19 | Q and Not U | Neumo’s |
| 4/24 | The Killers | Moore |
| 4/26 | M83, Ulrich Schnauss | Chop Suey |
| 4/27 | British Sea Power | Neumo’s |
| 4/27 | Living Legends, Jedi Mind Tricks, Pigeon John | Showbox |
| 4/28 | Lyrics Born | Chop Suey |
| 5/06 | Gang of Four, Radio 4, Menomena | Showbox |
| 5/08 | Perceptionists feat. Mr. Lif, Akrobatik | Chop Suey |
| 5/11 | LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A. | Showbox |
| 5/13 | The Books | Chop Suey |
| 5/14 | Afro Man | El Corazon (Graceland) |
| 5/17 | Prefuse73 | Chop Suey |
| 5/21 | … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead | Showbox |
| 5/27 | IQU | Chop Suey |
| 5/28 | Caribou (formerly Manitoba), Junior Boys | Chop Suey |
| 5/28 | Sasquatch! Pixies, Modest Mouse, Kanye West, Wilco, The Arcade Fire, Ray Lamontagne, Jem, Bloc Party, U.S.E., Joanna Newsom, A.C. Newman, The Frames, Bobby Bare Jr., Be Good Tanyas, Benevento-Russo Duo, Matisyahu, Visqueen, Blue Scholars, Smoosh, Aqueduct | The Gorge |
Unfortunately, I can’t make the M.I.A. / Diplo show, but if you’re in Seattle, New York, Chicago, or Miami (the only cities they’re currently touring in) you must go see that show.
Update 2/22: Added the awesome Sasquatch! It conflicts with Caribou and the Junior Boys, but they’ll be playing in Portland the night before, so perhaps I’ll head down for a road trip.
Update 2/28: Added DFA 1979 on March 31st at Neumo’s.
Update 3/24: Added Atmosphere, Trail of Dead, and Gang of Four
Update 3/28: Added LCD Soundsystem and M.I.A!
Amon Tobin played at Chop Suey last night; the show started with his downtempo material, transitioned into hip-hop (including some cuts by M.I.A. and Dizzee Rascal) and big beat, followed by drum and bass, which dominated the show. He ended his set by coming back to big beat, including one of his best songs, 4 Ton Mantis. I can only take so much drum and bass, so I would of preferred he stick to big beat and hip-hop.
Although I love the music, I’m rarely satisfied by live DJ sets. Rarely do electronic acts approach the quality of a capable live hip-hop or rock act.
Solid (B). Good mix, a little too much drum and bass
I picked this album up at his show; Chaos Theory is the soundtrack for a video game, Splinter Cell 3.
The album isn’t as strong as his others, but it’s understandable given the constraints of creating music that’s appropriate for a video game. It’s great as background music while you work, especially if you are in the cyberterrorism / information warfare industry, like I am.
Registered users can sample this as part of the Album of the Week.
Recommended (B+) Background music