Archive for the ‘passion pit’ tag

Thursday Remix Roundup #2

It’s time for another remix roundup! Here are a few pretty neat remixes that we’ve liked recently when going through the ole inbox.

First up is Professor Purple, the name of Jeremy Malvin, a University of Michigan student (GO BLUE! [<-- yeah, that just happened]) who just decided to start making some remixes. And judging by how much we like his take on Crystal Castles’ “Celestica”, we think he should continue.

Crystal Castles – Celestica (Professor Purple Remix

Up next, a remix that actually arrived in my text message inbox from our friend and contributor hockboi during a recent trip to Miami where he proposed to his longtime girlfriend (She said yes, we’re still not sure why). Congrats to them. I think this Calvin Harris remix of Passion Pit’s “The Reeling” probably came out last summer, but I’d never heard it before, and it’s been 80+ degrees all week (perfect for a jam like this), so it counts.

Passion Pit – The Reeling (Calvin Harris Remix)

Up next, a remix that won me on subject title alone, but ended up being pretty enjoyable. You had me at “Sleigh Bells meets a fly ass mexican jew”. It turns out that it’s Speak, the self proclaimed 34th best rapper in the world rapping over the top of “Infinity Guitars” by Sleigh Bells. Unfortunately, the Sleigh Bells part of the song still sort of hurts my ears in “It hurts my ears but I kind of like it but kind of hate it because it hurts my ears” sort of way. You can download a free EP from Speak right here.

Sleigh Bells feat. Speak – Infinity Rap Bars (Infinity Guitars Remix)

And last but certainly not least, making her second appearance (out of 2) in the Thursday Remix Roundup is Kelis, whose “Acapella” has been mashed up/remixed/somethinged with “Tomorrow Never Knows”, one of my favorite songs by the Beatles evarrr, by London’s Plump DJs. I had a class about the 60s in college and we learned that this song was sort of revolutionary because nobody else had ever played a track backwards in a song before, or something like that.

Kelis vs. Beatles vs. Plump DJs – The Volcano Coalition

We hope you’ve enjoyed this second installment of Thursday Remix Roundup. Til next time.

marina and the diamonds – i am not a robot flex’d rework (passion pit remix)

This is the second time I am writing this post. The first time, I somehow inadvertently deleted the whole thing, and unlike every other post where it autosaves every 10 seconds, this one decided not to. Let’s try this again.

Ah, Marina and the Diamonds, another one of the all too many groups that I hear about all the time nonstop every day always but have yet to ever listen to. Fortunately during a recent gchat with my good friend The Music Ninja, he suggested that I give this remix by Passion Pit a listen and I happen to like it quite a bit. And it also doesn’t hurt that a quick image search shows that Marina rather enjoys wearing leotards. I can buy into that.

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Passion Pit right now. They’re coming to town next month and I’m still a little torn on whether or not I want to go. But then I listen to this remix and I think, “How can I not go?” Come on, you’ve got to admit, this is pretty great. I was a little unsure of how I felt about Marina at first, but now having listened to this a few times, I like her a lot.

I’m also a little confused on the official title of this song. Is this a remix of a rework? How does that all come about?

Marina and the Diamonds – I Am Not a Robot Flex’d Rework (Passion Pit Remix)

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coachella day 1: the good, the bad, the ugly.

Its 2:42 am and I just arrived back at our lovely vacation rental after my first day of Coachella ever. It was an interesting and exhausting day to say the least. Here’s what’s gone down thus far:

- Good: My uncle gave us directions to take the scenic route through the mountains from San Diego. It was pretty nice, to say the least. Here’s a picture from the airplane on the way to SD, as well as a nice panoramic shot from our drive overlooking all of Palm Springs

- Bad: We finally arrived to the festival gates around 3:30 PM. We knew we already were going to miss Sleigh Bells (sad) but thought we would be inside for Yeasayer for sure. Because they weren’t supposed to go on til something like 4:20. But then there was a huge gathering of people outside the gates, and we weren’t quite sure why. Especially since the line wasn’t moving at all. Word on the street was that they ran out of wristbands at the gate. Don’t ask me how that happens. All I know is that it was about an hour before we finally got inside.

- Ugly: As soon as we finally got inside, we went immediately to the Mojave tent to see Yeasayer, and of course it was bursting from the seams. So we stood outside, and not two minutes later, a girl collapsed and landed RIGHT at my feet. Her friends tried to get her to respond to anything, and after a few minutes the medics came in and carried her out on a stretcher. Not a good omen.

- Unfortunate but unavoidable: Quite a few bands have had to cancel for various reasons. Mew (one of my must sees) had to cancel for health reasons, and quite a few other bands have canceled because they were unable to fly out of Europe due to the Icelandic volcano. I learned just before Fever Ray’s set began that Delphic was one of those bands. Delphic was perhaps the second most anticipated band on my list, mostly because I LOVE exciting, high energy early afternoon sets and I knew they would throw it down. I know there’s nothing anyone could have done about it, but it was still kind of saddening.

But then the day got substantially better and stayed that way.

Met up with my internet friend Julia and her friend Libby. It might go down as the easiest/least complicated meet up ever. I’m rather happy that I recently made the switch to Sprint, because I was able to send/receive messages all day, and the folks with AT&T weren’t so lucky.

Then we went to check out Aeroplane for my first taste of the famous Sahara tent (on the way stopping into the Mojave tent again to catch Peabs and Mrs. Peabs, another far too easy meet up). And boy did it live up to all expectations. Aeroplane was playing maybe some of the best tunes ever, including a few recent dailybeatz favorites. As we approached the tent, I heard the familiar sounds of Tensnake’s “Coma Cat”, which was shortly thereafter followed by Flight Facilities “Crave You”. Other notables were Phoenix “If I Ever Feel Better”, a sick remix of “Girls & Boys” by Blur (perhaps an homage to Blur/Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn?), and that song from the 90s that goes “La da di la da dai”. You know the one I’m talking about. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Next up we went to check out the areas we hadn’t really seen yet, which included about 10 minutes of The Specials and Passion Pit, before deciding to get some grub and head back to Sahara for Pretty Lights, where I was supposed to meet my friend Sarah. We grabbed a DELICIOUS slice of pizza, and after I couldn’t find Sarah I decided it was time to try to catch up with our housemates for the weekend/friends I haven’t talked to or seen since high school. We had a quick rendezvous in the beer garden, and it was getting close to the time I’d been waiting for all day. Staking out a spot in the Mojave for Fever Ray’s day-ending performance.

We got there a bit early with enough time to catch the end of Imogen Heap’s set. I have to say, I was really impressed by her. She might be the hardest working musician in the biz when she’s performing, wearing a sort of headset microphone and literally running around the stage throughout her songs going from piano to keyboard to keytar to even drums, all the while continuing to sing. Very impressive Ms. Heap, you’ve won me over.

We got pretty darn close after that set ended and sat on the ground for the hour wait that stood in front of us. In the meantime we met some cool kids from all over the place whom I thought at first we were going to get in a fight with. It was a great metaphor for how awful our day began and what it turned out to be. There was Sophia and Buster along with the guy from the UP (that’s “upper peninsula” for you non-Michiganders) and another friend whose names escape me. We talked Michigan and even Michigan football for a while before one of the weirdest/greatest hours of my live music life thus far. It’s this meeting strangers who are really cool that is what music fests are all about.

Finally. My girl Fever Ray lived up to and surpassed all of my expectations on the live stage. I expected it to be an exercise in dark sounds and visuals with occasional rockin beats. But seriously, this chick threw down some next level dark shit on that stage. There were old fashioned lamps all over that would light up with the beat (it was very Disney Haunted Mansion looking) along with the whole band dressed in what I would describe as zombie tribesman outfits. And, oh, the powerful color changing laser beams. They get me every time. The best way I can describe her performance is that it was sort of a totally over the top and avant-garde performance, but perhaps rather than it taking the form of a bird’s nest around one’s face (a la Lady Gaga), the avant-garde manifested itself in a sort of beautiful nightmare, both musically and visually. And I do mean that in the very best way. I walked away just saying “Wow, that was…wow.” And I heard others saying the same all the way to the car.

The only bad part of Fever Ray’s set was the weird kid who showed up in front of me near the end. When the last song began, he was turning to everyone around us screaming, “I WANNA FUCK TO THIS SONG!!” multiple times. Have some class, good sir.

Then, more ugly. After making a wrong turn walking back to our car (leading to probably an additional half mile of walking, at least), we finally got back to our car at 1:30, only to sit in non-moving traffic for a while. Luckily someone had taken down a piece of the fencing so there was an additional exit and we finally got out around 2.

So here’s a summary of my thoughts thus far.

- Things that were good: The whole overall atmosphere. After being used to festivals in big cities, it was so great to look around and see nothing but mountains and palm trees as far as the eye could see. And then at night, wow, that place really transformed. Besides all of the huge art installations being illuminated, the outskirts of the entire Coachella grounds are surrounded by huge spotlights which occasionally all converge overhead, forming a sort of blanket over the festival. It sounds really lame, but it’s really cool to see in person.

Also good were several of the cool people that I’ve met already, and I look forward to meeting some more.

- Things that were bad: The fest running out of wristbands and schedules. It’s really hard to be at these things without your trusty pocket schedule. And the traffic situation at the end of the night needs to be fixed somehow.

- Regrets: Not doing everything in my power to make sure that my camera was still functional for Fever Ray.

Ok, that’s all I’ve got right now. Here are a few pics (very few). Mostly of the festival grounds/atmosphere. I was trying to obtain random pieces of video footage to splice together a nice recap video at the end of the fest (I already have the music/theme/cadence figured out in my head), apparently taking video is a massive drain on this camera’s battery. I’m using my roomates for various reasons, and I didn’t really take the time to figure it out, so maybe I can fix it for tomorrow. In fact, I killed most of the battery during Aeroplane I think. Today I will make sure to save battery power for evening shots, because that’s the real good stuff. But I wanted to give you an inside look at what went down today for those of you who could not attend. Hopefully I can keep up the next two days as well.

Diagnosis: So far I really like Coachella.

Fever Ray – Triangle Walks

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lollapalooza day 3 recap

after a fun night out in wicker park and sleeping in a nice and air conditioned apartment, i was a little weary about getting to the festival at 1230 pm, knowing i would be in the hot sun for 8 or 9 hours that day, but thanks to nick dropping me off downtown, i was able to get there and be in place 3 or 4 people from the stage at about 1215 to meet up with karen, louis and nikki. even those first 15 minutes were completely unbearable but we sort of forgot about it once friendly fires started.

friendly fires – white diamonds

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their show was an hour of non-stop beats, dancing, and even some electronic jams. i was expecting big things from their live show and got even more than i wanted. having never been to a 1230 show at lollapalooza, id have to imagine it was one of the best, highest energy 1230 shows out there, especially for such a hot day. even though nikki had to sit part of it out thanks to david guetta at soundstage the night before, and i almost passed out in the middle of it, im so glad i made it there in time. lead singer ed macfarlane was a total rock star. manning the dj equipment throughout the set, he danced and flailed all over the stage and even sang a whole song almost in the middle of the crowd in the open area leading to the soundbooth. and though it could have been cliche and cheesy, he totally pulled it off.

after the dancing in the heat almost did us all in before the day even began, we decided it was time to chill in the shade at perrys where we spent the next hour or two. i hoped to make it to the other side of the park to catch bat for lashes, but with the intense heat it just wasnt going to happen. i took a nice little nap under the trees during car stereo (wars) which was, as the name suggests, a mashup dj. some good stuff, and some not great, but it was still enjoyable. then i split off on my own and decided to post up at the citi stage for the better part of the rest of the day.

after eating another order of those delicious french fries (still cooked to perfection), i made my way up close for gang gang dance. i dont know much about them other than a few songs, and that their music is very out there and electronic and experimental, and as the weekend seemed to be all about electronic for me, i decided i wanted to check them out live.

when their show began, it was equally as weird as i thought it would be. they started out with about a 10 minute abstract drum/dj type thing that didnt really have a steady beat. i think they were trying to work out some technical difficulties throughout the first half of the set. when that was done, they went into the two songs i knew, house jam and vacuum, which were both great. the last half of the set was straight up dancing and the crowd was loving every minute of it.

this was one of my favorite shows from the weekend as well. lead singer liz bougatsos reminded me a bit of maryann from true blood. as the show progressed and she continued with her temptress dances, the clouds began to roll in. at times she started screaming out “let it rain! let the rain fall down!” to the incessant cheers of the crowd who, after sweating for hours, would have gladly welcomed a downpour, and im sure the crowd would have gone nuts if it actually rained at that moment, like it appeared it would. had she actually made it rain with her rain dance, it would have been the show of the weekend.

gang gang dance – house jam

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once that ended, i posted up for passion pit. im still not sure if this was a good idea or an ill-conceived mistake. karen made it up to the front with me only to leave shortly after when she realized was a disaster it was going to be. the show was excellent but the crowd was awful. really, who crowd surfs to “little secrets” (posted below for reference)? the same drunk people kept going up over the crowd time and time again. and then there was the group of deerhunter fans loudly and obnoxiously cheering “A-T-L! A-T-L!” throughout the entire show (as well as the better part of the gang gang dance show). there were definitely some fun moments being up close in that crowd, but the bad outweighed the good and i didnt even attempt to take out my camera for this show.

passion pit – little secrets

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the best part about sticking it out was that, finally, after many attempts, i was able to make it to the front row, right in the middle, hanging on the rail for deerhunter. the show began pretty uneventfully, but after a song or two, we learned that lead singer bradford cox was all hopped up on some b12 shot he got and that he thinks he has H1N1. he kept telling us that all he saw was a sea of faceless flesh, and he looked a few times like he was going to pass out. well, i think he always looks like hes about to pass out because of his insanely tall and lanky body, but thats another story. then he started referencing lou reed and snoop dogg (both playing at the same time as deerhunter) and even started playing a few tunes for 10 seconds at a time. outside of the entertaining weirdness of the commentary, the show rocked hard. it was tough to hear the vocals at times but i think it was just cuz i was right up there. “nothing ever happened”, one of my favorites of theirs, was especially great with a nice jam on the ending theme. i took a ton of pictures too.

so then it was time to head back across the park for some mstrkrft fun, and after another batch of delicious potstickers i was back at perrys. i decided i didnt want to see janes addiction or the killers and after a failed meetup attempt with ursula and karen heading to the killers, i closed out my festival alone at perrys with deadmau5 (which, much to my surprise, is pronounced deadmouse, and not deadmaufive). i made some new friends in the crowd and had a blast, and after running into nikki one more time, it was time to call it a weekend, but not before taking 2 last extremely blurry shots of perrys.

i dont really know how i made it back to nicks apartment that night without passing out/collapsing, much less showered and packed up to leave first thing in the morning to head up north. the 5 nights up north, however, proved to be just the relaxation and recovery period i needed.

quick tidbits about the weekend:
favorite shows – miike snow, friendly fires

biggest surprises – miike snow, gang gang dance

best area ever – perrys.

only people i didnt run into – little lauren and molly. somehow i ran into everyone else i knew that would be there without even trying.

favorite food – star of siam pot stickers and french fries from stand i cant remember. actually, i think thats the only food i ate on the festival grounds all weekend, minus the next item on the list.

best deal ever – the GIANT slice of watermelon for only $2

best idea ever – bringing my camelpak after not planning on bringing it, but then seeing the weather forecast for the weekend.

festival lessons learned: dont be afraid to branch out on your own, or youll likely miss many of the shows you want to see most. and you will always see less shows than you think you will.

tomorrow, back to our usual shtick. i hope youve enjoyed my recap and often bad/blurry pictures. one day ill get a nice camera (and, in my dreams, a press pass).

friendly fires – paris

happy tuesday everyone. no really, i mean it. who doesnt love tuesdays? i mean, theyre only slightly more awful than mondays, which kinda blows. tuesdays are the equivalent of turning 20 years old. its the only year between 16 and 21 where you gain absolutely no benefit. likewise, theres nothing to look forward to on tuesday. too far from the previous weekend to still be in a good mood thinking about it, and too far to be excited about the upcoming weekend. the only good thing about tuesdays was that the biggest loser was on tuesday nights, but that became 2 hours and a tiny bit too much of a commitment, and its over for the summer anyway. so now we must look to the little things to brighten our spirits, like todays song, paris by english pop/dance/funk rockers friendly fires.

this song is dedicated to my little sis whos going to paris today (hi car!). its also relevant because her dream is to have an international boyfriend, as discussed in the song. you may remember them from the wii fit commercials which feature their song “on board”. all of their songs are super upbeat and make you want to see them live in concert at lollapalooza this summer, for example. the good news is that i have no other show conflicts with their scheduled time. the bad news is that they go on at something like 1230, and last year i never made it to the festival before 3. i blame it on that all you can eat breakfast buffet though. i still dont know how i walked back to the apartment that day.

i heard about this band the same time i heard about passion pit, also fun and high-energy, so i guess in my head i always associate the two bands. this song imparticular is great because of the tension and release between the verses and chorus. the verses are slightly harsh and punctuated, while the chorus is smooth and flowing. i also love when a beat is established, then the drums kick in and it takes you a second to figure out what the true beat is, just like the beginning of this song. if you like this song even a tiny bit, you should check out the rest of this album, because youll probably think its great. other favorite tracks include strobe and white diamonds and lovesick.

friendly fires – paris

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bonnaroo preview – phoenix – love like a sunset

day 2. but really its day 1 for us because based on the time we’re planning on leaving, by the time you read this we will probably have already missed all the musics from day 1. but thats ok because i didnt really really want to see anyone on day 1 except passion pit, and theres still a glimmer of hope that we made it in time for them. either way we probably had an awesome time last night because if we missed the music that means we were maybe slightly mad about it and that we probably partied really hard to make it up. maybe thats why my stomach hurts right now.

todays problem of the day is two-fold. fold 1 is that phish is playing at the same time as crystal castles, one of my “bands i really wanted to see”. the second fold is that phish is playing at the same time as phoenix, one of my “bands i really wanted to see”. but i suspect i will have many opportunities in the future to see aforementioned “bands i really wanted to see” so im quasi ok with it all.

since i will not be hearing any music by phoenix today, i decided that you probably should. ive just recently become a fan of this uber-french uber-fun uber-pop group and planned on posting 1901, a great ditty from their latest album “wolfgang amadeus phoenix”, but then i decided to post this song instead because it shows how versatile they can be even though at first glance and first listen you would think that they are straight up pop. this post is bad because i have tons of errands to run and packing to do. but enjoy the track anyway in all of its obscurity. its a 7:39 cloudy day turned dark dreary thunderstorm turned pretty excellent sunny day at the beach. i urge you to listen all the way through to the sunny day and reward yourself. if you want the straight up pop, check out “lasso” or “consolation prize”.

phoenix – love like a sunset

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bonnaroo preview – passion pit – sleepyhead

by the time you read this post, i will be well on my way to my first bonnaroo ever. i have kind of no idea what to expect, and its been a long time since ive done any sort of camping so im nervous and excited. im traveling and camping with a bunch of seasoned pros though, so im sure all will be well. the disappointing part is that out of all of the bands that i wanted to see the most, they seem to all be playing at the same time as another band i wanted to see the most. so there will be difficult decisions to be made but im going to make those decisions on the fly. itll be based on the mood im in at that moment, so ill always be seeing the perfect band for whatever mood im in. sounds like a pretty fail proof system if you ask me.

here at dailybeatz, we would like to give you a little taste of the bonnaroo experience, which is why the next four days will feature songs by artists playing each day of the festival. today we will be driving most of the day and will likely miss most of the bands that are playing. but todays track is “sleepyhead” by passion pit, who will be playing at 11 15 tonight. if we make it there by then were going to be cutting it real close, so hopefully we get there in time. this isnt even really my favorite passion pit song, but i wanted to post it anyway because i think overall its an extremely well produced song. all of the pieces work together in perfect harmony. its also a very good use of what i like to refer to as the chipmunk voice. you know what im talking about — when a regular track is sped way up to sound like the chipmunks. you may all remember the chipmunk voice from circa 2002 when it was a part of just about every rap song that made its way to the radio. it was kind of really overused and annoying, but every once in a while the chipmunk voice actually feels right in a song and adds a lot to it. this track is one great example. the other example is a cocorosie song that ill probably be posting at some point in the future so keep an eye out for that. this track was on passion pits “chunk of change” ep and it was so good that they decided to put it on “manners”, their full length debut that was released in just that past few weeks. for anyone keeping track, “the reeling” from the aforementioned full length release also made my scant summer/running playlist this year and was very nearly the topic of todays post. but the great production of sleepyhead won out in the end.

passion pit – sleepyhead

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