EPIC Music Video of the [Insert Time Period]

The "of the week" theme is now kind of misleading. But on the plus side, it's like playing safe Russian Roulette with guessing when there will actually be new updated content on this blog. Just keep pressing F5 guys! Speaking of which, if you have been playing, congratulations, you've struck gold (or possibly just shot yourself, if we're making a direct analogy).

This week, we're taking a look at Nosaj Thing's new music vidoe for "Eclipse/Blue", a pleasantly calming track with accompanying choreography and uniquely designed visuals. Take motion tracking out of the games/entertainment industry bubble for a second, and you might turn some heads. The performers here are moving in real-time as the shapes and lines track and react to their dance. The result is a mesmerizing technological and artistic feat: a combination of performance and new media.

Get with the times folks, this is becoming standard practice. Painting and shit better move aside.

[via. Motionographer]

EPIC Animated Film Score of the Month (and an Update)

Sorry I've been A.W.O.L this past week and a half. Internship's keeping me busy.

I'm working with Canadian director Casey Walker on a project. Wanna help?

Go to alittlebitzombie.com and read, watch, tweet, and just about anything you can!
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In the meantime, for the rare hours I get of relaxation this month, I spend it with John Powell, Hiccup and Toothless.

Can't embed the full link I wanted. Here's some video to accompany this amazing score.

EPIC Cover of the Week

Sarah Winters makes Top 40 sound like Pitchfork-worthy alternative pop folk greatness. You just want to hug and console her voice. Here’s her Bandcamp.

We all eat that shit up, admit it.

TRACKS W/ CLASS | Macklemore – The End

Could be a follow up to the former Aurally Audacious Endeavours, could be an accompaniment, could be its own thing.

Tracks W/ Class points out tracks that you should be listening to, and would benefit your musical experience and hopefully bring you into another territory of music that you wouldn’t have journeyed into otherwise. If you have, then good job.

If not, then let’s start with Macklemore.

THE ARTIST

The Seattle rapper has been traversing the mid-fame rap scene and especially around hip-hop blogospheres. While he’s a star in his hometown, he only recently did some concerts north of the border, and I hope his fanbase grows because he offers something that most other rappers don’t offer: meaning.

Mainstream hip-hop has depressingly become easy to decipher into three categories of subject matter: drugs, money, and getting women. That’s not even a stereotype, probably any producer will tell an artist that to reach Top 40 charts, you’d have to manufacture a bubble-gum beat and throw two or three lines of lyrics about any of the above, and repeat until squeaky clean.

What does Macklemore do? He tells stories about drug addiction; succumbing to it, overcoming it, suffering because of it, losing loved ones due to it. And that’s just one song. Pride for his heritage, the dangers of consumerism, tributes to his favourite role models—things that can’t be described in one word, dominate his collaboration work with The Vs. EP with producer Ryan Lewis, who offers some incredible instrumental backing to support Mack’s rhymes.

THE TRACK

This EP ends with “The End”, a slow and sombre finisher for a diverse and emotionally wearing experience with Mack’s subject matter changing between golden highs (“Irish Celebration”) and disturbing lows (“Otherside”).

“The End” presents a simple story: it’s prom night and there’s The Girl. The quintessential teenage story—fight or flight to get that dream of having her.

But Mack’s lines prove an astounding depth to this story—it’s so unabashedly introspective, it’s like looking into the innermost feelings for a young boy and laying them out on the table while overwhelming love and longing comes over him.

I got chills by the third line. When I closed my eyes and listened to this track, Mack laid out the imagery, the setting, and the characters in a few seconds to give me a full picture. Most rappers can’t do that.

And it really is telling a story—Mack raps through the two characters. The girl says this, and the boy responds with that. Some of my favourite lines show a surreal and dreamy feel to an all-to-relatable experience:

“You whispered, ‘Don’t you love music / It’s such a gift, and I’ll give it to ya’"

It’s a back and forth between doubt and bliss (“My God, seconds away from God, Yes"), consuming hope and crippling loss. Going through this song is like having a little movie move through your mind and leave you wanting more. Mack pieces together his storytelling so deliberately because he knows this subject matter attaches to it’s listeners. It’s all about universal feeling.

Not to mention Ryan Lewis’ choice of instrumentals. Crying violins and defeated, softly blown horns surround the ‘dance floor’ of this prom night. They express the emotions our characters are feeling. A sombre piano backing track binds it all together to create a slow, steady descent into the thoughts and feelings of what might very well be our past selves.

It’s a study on the state of love, having to grow up and lose what you thought was your entire world. You don’t know if the devastation is physical or emotional:

“Not letting go, but I can’t hold on / Fading through my fingertips, watching us fall / I try to catch you with my arms”

This song comes full circle—it forces thought, and it questions your most significant questions you could be posed with, if only for a moment.

TAKEAWAY:

I’ve had this track on repeat for like three days. It can become addicting, but it’s good to begin actually feeling things from music again. Macklemore is an expert lyricist and musical storyteller, and Ryan Lewis knows his rhymes so intimately he matches them with his instrumentals like a puzzle piece. There’s plenty of tracks off of The Vs. EP that are evidence of that, but “The End” is a great way to finish it.

It’s poignant, it’s honest, and it plays with your emotions. All the best songs do.

Want more Macklemore? One of his newer tracks, “Wings” is complex as ever.

EPIC Everything About this Video of the Week

No words. Too much awesome.

TEH MEWSIKS, LET ME SHOW U THEM.

Two things to talk about on the docket. CHARTattack & Chill, Bro.

CHARTattack.com just revamped their site in a number of big ways, and if you haven’t heard of this awesome music site, then it’s the perfect chance to get on board. New content, new voices, and new music. It’s a Toronto-based website focusing on independent and alternative music from the local scene and internationally. CHART started as a Canadian music magazine back in the 90’s and has since moved into the Internet to focus on a specific demographic: us. It’s focus has always been campus radio, which meant students, which means that its music that’s important to us that we want to hear about. 

I love music. I’m sure you love music. If you like the music I like, then you should check out this website. The Pitchforks and the SPINs may be the bigger boys, but if you’re from the GTA, and you want some people who show you music like it is, participate as much as you do, and just like to share with others, I’d go with these guys. Rock, hip-hop, electronic—it’s all there. And CHARTattack wants you to be a part of it, Canada or abroad. So like them on Facebook, and check the site.
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Changing topics, there’s also Chill, Bro.

I’ve been doing internet campus radio with SPIRITlive.net for three semesters now, and done a number of shows. Different Levels Productions Co-Founder and buddy of mine Issa Shah tells me:

“You’re like the Orson Welles of SPIRITlive.”

Which I do think I’m going to be using for a while. But I digress, this year, Joey Ferguson and I teamed up to create a show that would have a pretty distinct focus, that would let me share some of my music taste to interested ears, and just plain have some fun. And oh, have we.

Chill, Bro. is a show that we developed for a specific purpose: to calm everyone down. Since this is radio for our fellow Radio & Television Arts students, we want to share music that will have that effect. Calming, collected, soothing—you name it, just as long as it’s chill. If you’re a student and your stressed, this is the show to listen to.

If you want more info, check us out on Facebook, and follow us on Tumblr.

Chill, Bro airs on SPIRITlive.net every Tuesday from 4-5pm. If you can’t catch that, we have archives of every episode. Listen in below.

So, there some new music endeavours to subscribe to! If you want new music, just holler at any of these two places, and your bound to find it. Happy music-ing!

EPIC(ly shocking) Music Video of the Week

Lights Out at The Daily What usually has some interesting internet tidbits for those who can’t really sleep at one in the morning, and they usually help the insomnia along with videos like the one I’m about the show you.

Apparently, a French animator/director by the name of Jérémie Périn knows his away around the tablet and the timeline, and brings a pretty stellar animation to the table for DyE’s debut single “Fantasy” of his new album. The sounds remind me a lot of M83, really good atmospheric melodies combined with simple, bubbly synths. Matches the video a lot. Until…

Lovecraft approves.

If you ever do watch The Thing, which I endlessly prompt you to do in every other post, you’ll like the similarities. Or Akira. You know what, just anything with mutating flesh and terrifying monster-morphs.

EPIC Sound Design of the Week

Audio production last year was an awesome course, save for the shitbag teacher that gave me and my buddy a 75 for the most horrifying soundscape our class has ever heard.

But I learned a few things, and I like how I can appreciate stuff like this now:

Diego Stocco - Music From A Dry Cleaner from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

Good vibes.

[via dailywh.at]

How to become a knowledgeable person:

Watch the Sagan Series, right here, right now.

“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” – Carl Sagan

God is Life. Life is God. We are its saviour. And we’re not doing a fucking good job right now.

Soundtrack for life’s situations.

For every time I swagger into a room, or chase a bear.

The album is Treats, from 2010. Noise pop that ditches the flowers and cuteness and just goes hard.

EPIC Music Video of the Week

Old, but awesome.

Also, hands!

Aurually Audacious Endeavours – Wye Oak

From The Walking Dead’s new Comic-Con Trailer.

Literally found these guys three minutes ago. Indie folk duo from Baltimore.

Thought the singer was a man before I saw this video. Turns out it wasn’t. And that’s a good thing, too.

Title track off their new album, Civilian.

Aurally Audacious Endeavours – The Reign of Kindo

I should be asleep, but I gotta tell you about this band that someone recommended to me, first. Because the more I listen to them and watch them the more I start figuring just how fucking ridiculously talented this band is. I’m not even bullshitting you, this is pretty unreal stuff when you watch or hear them play. Really, it’s not surprising, they’re signed to the indie label Candyrat Records. Other guys on it? Andy McKee, Antoine Dufour—not a bad rep.

If you play an instrument, and know about playing music, this will probably be an even better song.

The basics: that’s what Wikipedia is for. But they’re from Buffalo, they used to be called This Day & Age, but they got a new member and changed their name to this peculiar one. They’ve decided to call themselves a jazz influenced progressive pop-rock band. I call it Jazz Rock, cause it’s simpler. And Jazz is the slickest, coolest, smoothest genre in music.

And that’s what this band is. Sonically, they’re tight as hell. Because what they play is so damn complex all the time, you don’t really notice it, but slowly you pick up on the individual sounds and rhythms these instruments are playing, and it blows your mind—it blew mine at least. The piano and the drums specifically, are reason enough to listen to this band. The drummer is insane. And the piano melodies are the main jazz element in this outfit. Who doesn’t love jazz piano?

The vocalist is the other big point. Off their new album, This Is What Happens, there’s 15 tracks worth of vocals to take in. The sound of this guy’s voice is damn grappling—it seems to form with the sound of the band around him, like a cup. It just fills it all in. Probably has to do with the mixing of the album—in that case, that is some sick mixing (you should hear the snares on this thing), but the timbre and the projection of his voice is just so perfect—technically, and stylistically for these songs.

It’s a versatile vocalist for a versatile band too, they switch up time signatures for multiple tracks, their chords and rhythms are very diverse, and the overall sound is a clean, polished, and cohesive. Everything’s neat and tidy, but its still full and lush

Is it rock? Is it jazz? Is it pop (stylistically, anyway)? Don’t know. Don’t care. It’s awesome, is what it is.

They have 3 releases, 1 EP and 2 albums, their latest is mentioned above.

Check ‘em, folks.

[shouts to Preet for showing me! Thanks, bro!]

For real this time, guys.

Let’s put Green Lantern, Portal, Guild Wars, video games, comic books and other things you have little interest in aside for a while. Change of pace. And by that I mean things I actually used to post that mattered to most people.

By that I mean a MUSIC POST, oh my what?!

The Kollection is a website. With music, oddly enough. A lot of music, actually. And guess what, you’ve probably never heard most of this music. Because most of this music is assembled, produced, scoured or sponsored by the people behind this website and posted for your listening pleasure, and they make sure most of it is special, unique, and creative. Mash-ups, remixes, mixtapes, collected albums, it’s all there for you to download.

Give it a click, and it’ll save me some explanatory effort. But what I can say if you’re too lazy is that most, if not all, of these mixes are very well done. I’ve listened to a few, and this site has some pretty stellar quality control. That whole correlation between artists that are unknown and their quality of music has some validity here. Rightly so, because some of these remixes are absolutely ridiculous. Some of these indie artists and great finds, and some of these mixtapes are tailor-made for your specific situations, moods, and troubles so you have a soundtrack to your life for a while.

It’s a damn civil service. So check it out. It’s your duty as a citizen. Of good music.

ALSO, recommendations. I feel like doing recommendations. You feel like being recommended music? Good. I love you, because you love music and being recommended some by me. I love music because I get to recomme—

ALRIGHT,

1) Starfucker – it’s electropop with an indie style; dream-poppy, raw vocals, some high, pulsing beats on most of their tracks. Their sound is chilled out but still energetic. You like melodic electro? Check ‘em out. Even if you like the glitch or dub sounds, these guys have some sonic references to those genres as well. Also, that band name. I mean, come on now. Reptilians is a good album to start.

2) Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats – Remember the Red Hot Chili Peppers (and how they ‘broke up’—fuck the doubters)? Well, they’re still here. They just took a break. Their drummer looks like Will Ferrell, and this side-project funk rock collective is his version of ‘taking a break’. Don’t let ‘funk rock’ deter you, some of their tracks off their debut Meet the Meatbats are pretty versatile in style and genre. Some sound post-rocky, some even grungy, but with Chad Smith banging those drums with that familiar RHCP rhythmic control, it’s still got groove and flavour. Dig funk rock? Dig rock? Dig 90’s? Dig into these guys. Also, there’s a theme going on with these band names. Guess what it is.

“Drummer swag.” Definition: Chad Smith.

3) All India Radio – Jus chilllllllll. Describes them pretty well. This band’s been here for a while under the radar of mainstream and pumping out album after album of steady trip-hoppin’/ambient/electronica grooviness. The vocalist has that soothing, ethereal feel to it, combined with the atmospheric and interesting beats, it gets you into another place. Wonderful genre, wonderful band to represent it. Good for soundtracks, discovering one’s purpose in life, falling in love, and slow-motion. I lied about the theme, kind of. India’s pretty epic though. Lots of shit happening there. Echo Other is a good starter for this band’s rich and broad discography.

4) Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Fun as hell indie pop. If you dig Vampire Weekend, they have sort of the same vocal sound, and a arguably more epic band name. Crisp vocals and up-beat, clean instrumentation make for a pleasing ear-massage whenever you want them for one. Good cheer-up music too, especially their album Let It Sway. Nothing’s in-your-face. It’s laid-back rock pop, approachable, and enjoyable. Melds genre codes, but still gives you exactly what you want to expect from a band name like that.

5) Guitar – Well, this is just deceptive. It’s not a rock band. Not even a band, just a music producer with a very unique sound. It’s trip-hop at its core, maybe—an artist like this doesn’t bode well with categorization. It’s just what it is, and what it is down-tempo beats combined with guitars (accordingly) and other strings; even some cultural traditional instruments from Japan. Again, it’s chill music, but with a nice twist. The classical feel of the guitar against the trip hop/ambient beats provide a damn interesting sound to absorb in. Only album I have right now is Tokyo. Planning on getting to some more. It’s worth it, trust me.

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I know there’s no rap, no death metal, no jazz (full-on jazz at least), and no tribal music, but I do try to be broad with recommendations, buy its my first one so cut me some slack. If you want some more recommendations, The Needle Drop is where to go. I took a page from his book for the post he did today:

My album recommendations aren’t debuts, but still, check them out. I download my music illegally, because its cheap. But I don’t recommend doing that. If you have the money, and the motivation, buy on iTunes or go to a music store. Gives you hipster cred, and you get to support artists worth supporting. Downloading music is a shameful thing. But I’m a shameful person, so it works out.

I might be expanding on one of these artists, audaciously. If anything, there will be more of the good ol’ days of music posts. Been binging on chill music for the past week. Going to need a lot more. If you don’t already know why, you’ll have to keep checking in for the big reveal. That’s right, you’re gonna have to read more. But in the future, I might proofread, and write more concisely, but I sucked at English in first year, so maybe not.

Stay tuned, and happy listening.

I have the weirdest boner.

(Weird Geeky) Swag.

Slowpoke, I know, but I haven’t gotten to dig into Gambino’s lyrics, especially for this song, until now. Too many brown kids reciting all of his rhymes in a car slightly too well to not be an obsession. But, I hear ‘em now, loud and clear.

“I got some pussy that was insane / So insane, it’s an enemy of Bat-mayne”

There’s a lot of reasons why Black Spiderman/Troy/Gambino/Donald should be listened to, but for me, that one line was enough. It’s a sick line. You probably understand why.

This song is like pop cultural references + weird swag = new age black rapper. Or something. Fuck, I don’t know, I just dig the Joker reference.

Fuck yeah, Joker (well, to be accurate, almost all of Batman’s rogues gallery are legitimately insane in one way or another, hence Arkham Asylum, but you don’t really care so I’ll leave it at that).  Sick beat too.

And dat dolly in. Nothing’s better than a smooth, slow sensuous camera movement on a rapper on crack jumping around spitting about how he digs voluptuous fangirls. Bam, I just made an application of my learned skills at school. How you like me now?

Also, Freaks & Geeks is classic 90’s television. Sick show, go watch it.

Thom Yorke has to pee.

LET HIM PEE, DAMN IT.

Aurally Audacious Endeavours (Partly): A-1 + Nostalgia

A-1’s a rapper from San Fran, whose specific mixtape samples heavily from 90’s television themes, mainly cartoons. And the beats are dirty, the flow’s tight, the lyrics are pretty hilarious with the references to the themes he’s rapping over.

Anthony from Needle Drop did a review, he says it better than I could ever.

Nostalgic mind-fuck indeed.

This is totally not stealing someone else’s analysis to fill in my own. Totally.

IN OTHER NEWS, Let’s watch and listen to old some cartoon opening themes.

Starts at 0:07. Badass badassery.

Badass mummies.

Badass riffs.

My favourite. DAT SWAG.

Moving up to the coming-home-to-catch-awesomeness Era. Also, sick future rave party.

Fuck yeah.

Groovy.

I miss being a kid.

Oh, and I should probably put this in for good measure, you know' you’ll watch it anyways.

Well, fuck now I remember another one come to think of it.

C’mon, you know you watched it when it came out.

If you’re out there reading this, post some more in the comments. It’ll waste some good time.

The Needle Drop

Reviews music, like me—even has my name.

Only he does it better, does it daily, and knows a lot more about music.

*sigh*

Been watching his reviews one after another for a good hour and a half now, and the artists that I do know of which he reviews, I’m getting that feeling that he’s hitting the head on the nail. There’s a constant ‘Damn, he’s right’ after each thorough, well-articulated, and sophisticated breakdown of the elements within the album he reviews each episode. Plus he’s funny and chill, like me—damn it.

Pretty titillating stuff. If you want to expand your musical horizons, and/or find out about some new albums being released/check out new artists, definitely check out this guy’s YouTube channel and his website, The Needle Drop.

Aurally Audacious Endeavours: Blue Sky Black Death

Ambient-ish, slightly haunting and all-around-pleasing sounds from a trip-hop group from Seattle. Blue Sky Black Death. Read on.

Not going to go into specifics of band history, because there’s Wikipedia for that, but I can tell you about their sound after listening to them a lot the past few months. And I can tell you that it’s really fucking awesome. Few reasons why: for one, it’s not what you’re probably used to listening to, and if you’ve found similar sounding artists to BSBD, chances are you already listen to BSBD, but I doubt you do because then you would undermine me and I don’t like that.

I’ve posted them before, so here’s the second chance to receive this experience.

The poignant vocals are provided by Yes Alexander, a folk artist who certainly takes full advantage of her unique voice, by creating creepily intimate and contemplating songs with her voice alone, and backed by the gentle and soft folk sounds, it really does create something else for your ears.

In terms of here though, BSBD compliments her unique vocality with melodic journeys through a very layered soundscape of muted, soothing trip-hop sounds. It’s a joy.

Yes Alexander’s vocals are showcased in the album Slow Burning Lights, released in 2008. Prior to that, they have a shitload of other albums, and a few after. I’ve only listened to that and Late Night Cinema, both albums with similar soundscapes, and honestly I’m fine with that.

If you like chill, you’ll love these guys, if you like alternative hip-hop, or at least original and eccentric beats, then you’ll like these guys. If you like unique music you’ve probably never listened to, you’ll like these guys.

For car rides, train rides, thinking in chairs, doing work, watching the clouds, looking at stars, and any combination between. And a lot of other things, but that’s up to you to figure out.

Blue Sky Black Death—No, they’ll never be big, and I hope they don’t. There would be no glorifying sense of elitism if I couldn’t dig to find incredible artists like these guys.

Aurally Audacio—ah fuck it, I’m too lazy.

Just listen to this and like it, okay?

They’re Swedish and they play House. What more do you fucking want?

Stay tuned, etc, etc. I’ll write when I feel like it.