Posts tagged with beck

02/11/2011

Hypem Hunting vol.3 : Lost

Here we go again. This week, our theme word is “lost”. Why? I don’t know. Because I like 4 letter words, and at this most miserable time of the year, I’m feeling a little lost in general. I don’t know if it’s some sort of post quarter life crisis or just winter, but something just feels a bit off right now. But it’s also not as bad as I’m making it sound, because this has actually been one of my more enjoyable/social winters in recent memory and I have tons of awesomeness in the near future that will set things right. This was a tough session, mostly because of my word choice. Because, man, a lot of these songs were super depressing. But I was able to find some good tunes nonetheless. So without further ado, let’s see some of my favorite tracks that I found when searching for “lost” on The Hype Machine.

Let’s start out with someone I’d most definitely like to get lost with. Well, to be perfectly honest I’d be happy to get lost with either of these musical folk. Bat For Lashes, aka the beautiful Natasha Khan, recorded this track with Beck for the Twilight soundtrack (which explains why I hadn’t heard it). So now that I’ve heard this song, that Thom Yorke song from the 2009 movie, and that Florence and the Machine song (which was so sublimely remixed here), I guess it’s safe to say that at least some good music comes out of the annoying Twilight flicks.

Bat for Lashes – Let’s Get Lost (Featuring Beck)
[via Sound Bites]

We all know that I love lo-fi jams, so the fact that I’m feeling this uber-lo-fi tune by San Francisco’s Melted Toys was something of a no brainer. Throw in a sort of new wave riff in the background and some hazy vocals and I’m sold. Their name also caught my attention, as I famously tried to redecorate as a child by melting crayons onto the carpet via the heating vent while my mom was in the shower to surprise her. Needless to say, I didn’t get the reaction I was hoping for.

Melted Toys – Lost Connection
[via SEE THE LEAVES]

Here’s a track that I’m pretty much 100% positive I never would have heard if not for this game of mine. It’s from Brooklyn’s Tiny Victories, and as far as I can tell, this is their only track so far, but it’s certainly a promising start. Between it’s electronic jumble of a mess which just so happens to come together to form the backbone of the track and it’s undertones that bring the same feelings of absolute joy that can be found in LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” (yes, I borrowed that allusion from the original poster of this song), this one’s a winner.

Tiny Victories – Get Lost Mr. Bones
[via 32ft/sec]

And last but not least, it’s time for some Active Child remix action. This time, it’s what’s essentially a complete rework of Steve Mason‘s “Lost and Found”. I really like the mysterious feeling of this remix, especially in conjunction with the lyrics which seem to be “I’m a-lost and found at the base of the river”, making this tune feel like somewhat of a fugitive chase or something like that. And of course in true Active Child fashion, right around the 2:20 mark, this song gets super weird and super awesome.

Steve Mason – Lost and Found (Active Child Remix)
[via disco naivete]

1 comments

04/03/2010

late night musings.

marriedtothesea.com
marriedtothesea.com

1. Holy crud. I just randomly clicked on a link to this on twitter, but it is nuts. Her name is Jazmine Sullivan and, according to the video, this girl is only 11 years old. And I really think she may be one of the real deal. Just wait til she gets to the 1:55 mark, and then just KILLS IT for the entire rest of the song. For real, this girl has been eating her musical Wheaties or something.

And if Sheena Beaston is reading this, one of the first comments says that this girl is a BEAST, which I think you might wholeheartedly agree with.


UPDATE: Turns out I'm way out of the loop and this girl is in her early 20s now and has a music career that I didn't know about. Either way, this video is impressive for an 11 year old.

2. While watching an episode of "America's Best Dance Crew" on my DVR (don't judge me), I noticed a disturbing commercial for the new season of "The Hills". The song sounded strangely familiar and I realized it was "I Remember" by Yeasayer. After tweeting that I wasn't angry about this, I was just disappointed, I got a response from @OddBlood, the official Yeasayer twitter, asking me to email them details of when I saw this. What I hope this means is that the use of their song wasn't authorized and that I potentially helped to stick it to Speidi and Co. That would be neat.

3. During a recent visit to town by some great friends in Seattle, I learned that one of them participated in a video contest for Beck's Beer in which they were tasked to create a viral video. My friend Stein plays the lead role in this, and I happen to think it is rather entertaining.

4. As a BONUS late night musing, while searching for the video mentioned above, because I was too lazy to find it in my facebook profile, I found this AMAZING PAGE. It’s called “uncyclopedia” and is sort of a full blow mock of wikipedia. This page happened to be discussing musician Beck, whose real name, according to uncyclopedia, is Beck Christ (later changed to Beck Hansen AKA Sexxi Bexxi AKA Testiclo Monstro). It’s all in the details (such as “Did you mean Glenn Beck?). Please do yourself a favor and see for yourself.

5. That comic you see up top is from the fantastic site Married to the Sea, where you learn what life would be like today in times gone by long ago. You’ll either love this site or hate it. I reckon many of you have been there before, but hopefully there are a few who haven’t.

6. It’s so late right now that there is an infomercial on for the “NINJA” Master Prep, which seems to be a glorified combination of a blender and a slap chop. All I gotta say is, The Music Ninja > “NINJA” Master Prep.

I hope this has been one of my better posts spawned merely from late night boredom and refusal to go to sleep.

6 comments

08/29/2009

the velvet underground – sunday morning

velvet underground and nico

this weeks saturday throwback is “sunday morning”, the opening track of the classic sort of self titled album “the velvet underground & nico”, the album where the velvet underground collaborated with, you guessed it, nico! nico is basically one of those artsy women that every guy wants to date. singer, model, actress, artist. shes probably the femme fatale she sings about on this album. [aside: am i the only one that wishes the lyrics, "shes going to play you for a fool, yes its true," was something like "shes so cruel"? i guess its just me.] i need to find me one of those.

the number of velvet underground tracks up for posting today was literally in the single digits, so it was pretty tough to narrow down. but the velvet underground seems to be all around lately. at lollapalooza, bandleader lou reed performed, and wouldnt you know he played about a half hour over his allotted time. come on lou, i dont really care who you are, thats sort of a big festival no-no, and kind of a dick move when you know theres someone else scheduled to play right after you. i didnt witness said festival time slot desecration because i was seeing deerhunter, at which point lead singer bradford cox was simultaneously teasing and threatening to play several velvet underground tunes. he said he was going to play heroin, perhaps in reference to his emaciated appearance, but he did not.

the other place ive been hearing the velvet underground, or their tunes at least, is becks website. he started this new online project with a bunch of other peeps called “record club” where they all get together and without rehearsal or anything they record an entire album in one day. in this case, the album was “the velvet underground & nico”. then he posts a track a week on his website, complete with a cool black and white video of the recording session. pretty cool idea. and since he allows us to embed, im going to take advantage. so sort of two tracks today. becks version, followed by the original. i think i have my old roomate bobby to thank for introducing me to the velvet underground, but i cant thank him because hes been cooped up learning computer programming for the past month. true story. this ones for you bobby.


Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico ‘Sunday Morning’ from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

the velvet underground – sunday morning

The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico - Sunday Morning buy this track on itunes
buy this track on amazon

2 comments

07/21/2009

beck – lost cause

beck live

we now return you to our regularly scheduled programming. todays song is one of my favorites of all times and its by the ever changing beck off his album “sea change” that came out some time when i was in college, and also a request by nick. as you maybe can tell, my fact checking seems to be falling by the wayside, and since it usually consisted solely of wikipedia anyway, i figure you arent necessarily losing out on top notch info. but anyway, sea change was one of those albums that had a definite sound that wasnt really like any other beck stuff for the most part. the other album like this was “midnight vultures”, which was full of big instrumentation and funky funky tunes. like the 10+ minute “debra” with the classic chorus line “i wanna get with you and your sister. i think her name is debra”. maybe one of the most fun albums ever?

the other cool thing about beck (aside from being one of the most eclectic and interesting people out there, both personally and musically) is that one of his band members once hit on my friend sarah. we were ushering his show at hill auditorium back in the day (i want to say we were still in high school) and were standing in the back of the auditorium and this guy was just mackin hardcore on her. then the opening band finished and becks band stared up, and sure enough, there was the hitman himself, right up there on stage. i cant remember if he was the drummer or the bassist.

does anyone not like this song? can anyone not like this song? i really like when theres two guitars in a song, and one is playing the melody, and the other is just noodling around the entire time playing fills and just layering it on thick. and then theres some bells in there. and then theres some great lyrics. the centerpiece of a classic album thats both soft and powerful. still crankin out the hits after all these years.

beck – lost cause

Beck - Sea Change - Lost Cause buy this track on itunes
buy this track on amazon

4 comments