A Random Mp3 Trilogy: Dirty Projectors & David Byrne, Jaydiohead, Illinois


The Dirty Projectors

The people who brought us classic compilation albums of my youth like Red Hot and No Alternative have a new edition that is looking ridiculous. It is entitled Dark Was The Night and will drop February 17. It is produced by the kids from The National and features two discs of the hottness:

Disc One:

1 Knotty Pine – Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
2 Cello Song (Nick Drake) – The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
3 Train Song (Vashti Bunyan recorded, written by Alasdair Clayre) – Feist + Ben Gibbard
4 Brackett, WI – Bon Iver
5 Deep Blue Sea – Grizzly Bear
6 So Far Around the Bend – The National (arrangement by Nico Muhly)
7 Tightrope – Yeasayer
8 Feeling Good (popularized by Nina Simone) – My Brightest Diamond
9 Dark Was the Night (Blind Willie Johnson) – Kronos Quartet
10 I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan) – Antony + Bryce Dessner
11 Big Red Machine – Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12 Sleepless – The Decemberists
13 Stolen Houses (Die) – Iron and Wine
14 Service Bell – Grizzly Bear + Feist
15 You Are The Blood – Sufjan Stevens
Disc Two:

1 Well-Alright – Spoon
2 Lenin – Arcade Fire
3 Mimizan – Beirut
4 El Caporal – My Morning Jacket
5 Inspiration Information (Shuggie Otis) – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
6 With A Girl Like You (The Troggs) – Dave Sitek
7 Blood Pt 2 (based on original song “You are the Blood” by the Castanets) – Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8 Hey, Snow White (Destroyer) – The New Pornographers
9 Gentle Hour (Snapper) – Yo La Tengo
10 Another Saturday (traditional song) – Stuart Murdoch
11 Happiness – Riceboy Sleeps
12 Amazing Grace (traditional song) – Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
13 The Giant Of Illinois (Handsome Family) – Andrew Bird
14 Lua – Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch
15 When the Road Runs Out – Blonde Redhead + Devastations
16 Love vs. Porn – Kevin Drew

Below is the opening track, a collaboration where The Dirty Projectors have taken some ancient David Byrne lyrics and built a new song out of it. Also, the original version (before it was on the Grizzly Bear EP) of Daniel Rossen’s “Deep Blue Sea” that is featured on this compilation has surfaced on the Internet and you can track it down here. For more info on Dark Was The Night here.

David Byrne and Dirty Projectors : Knotty Pine




In the latest remix news, New York’s DJ Minty Fresh Beats has created an album made up of mashups of Radiohead and Jay-Z songs. Considering the most memorable recent albums like this were Danger Mouse‘s The Grey Album and Amplive‘s Rainydayz Remixes, the appeal of this concept seems obvious. The album is available for free download here. It is a good listen, but the straightforwardness of the mixes and the fact that both of these artists have already been remixed billions of times previously sort of dilutes the impressiveness. Here is a track from it:

Jaydiohead : Change Order




Finally, Illinois‘ 2007 EP What The Hell Do I Know was brilliant enough for me to put it on my Best EPs of 2007 list, but i hadn’t really paid much attention to the band after that. It seems they wrote over 100 songs since then, and they are currently engaged in an onslaught of releases called The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe. Beginning in November of last year, they have been releasing a new EP and videos each month in an epic six part piece. It is hard for me to track down a master list of songs/releases from this thing, but if you are interested, check out their myspace. Here is a track from this month’s installment, Chapter 3:

Illinois : Are You Coming With Me

For a bonus, I didn’t realize this band got hyped up from their song “Nosebleed” being featured on Showtime’s Weeds, but here is a video of the “Brick Dance” with that Illinois song as the soundtrack:

Ohmpark’s Top 10 Best EPs Of 2007

An EP, or Extended Play, is the sweet spot between a full album and a single. Typically between 10 and 25 minutes, although what has come to define the difference between EPs and LPs can sometimes be blurred. Usually EPs get a bad rap, as it carries with it connotations of being “less-than” and not good enough to be a proper album, but I like seeing variations in the art medium. There are EPs like Alice In Chains’ Jar Of Flies and Radiohead‘s Airbag/How Am I Driving? that beat most full lengths. Also, EPs afford an artist the chance to showcase things that don’t fit in the context of a larger piece of work, or explore a different sound without moving fully in that direction. Anyways, I’d take an EP of nothing but the goodness over a full-length comprised mostly of filler surrounding a few good songs any day.

In 2007 I actually heard many great EPs. A few of which I’ll give honorable mentions that just missed this list that are worth-while include Joanna Newsom And The Ys Street Band, Vampire Weekend, and Black Kids‘ Wizard Of Ahhhs, of which I’ve come around a little bit on now that I’ve listened to it more. Here are the 10 most essential short-length albums of 2007:

Click here to read the entire post…

Friday Night Free-Style

So the big local fiasco that happened last week that we hadn’t talked bout yet was the MF Doom show. Apparently MF Doom came out way late in the morning, lip-synced to 20 minutes of a CD, and a bunch of people don’t even think it was really him (he always wears a mask). From the MJQ promoter via myspace:

Many apologies go to all of you who came out to the MF DOOM show last night at MJQ and paid $30 of your hard earned money only to watch him lip sinc for 20 minutes at 1:30 in the morning. This was by far one of the single worst experiences I’ve had as a club promoter and I sincerely apologize if you walked away feeling cheated. To make matters even worse MF DOOMS appointed doorman took off with all the money from the door after the show! As soon as we realized the money was stolen we decided to help ourselves to all of MF DOOMS merchandise which included a bunch of T shirts and posters. So, in an effort to make it up to everyone who walked away feeling cheated, we’re giving away all the merchandise for free so come and get it while supplies last!! And if that’s not enough, feel free to let MF DOOM aka Daniel Dumile know how you really feel by calling him at his home in Kennesaw Georgia.

All the best,

Randy Castello / Tight Bros Network


Damn.

Ruby Isle have decided to start covering whatever song is #1 on the blog mp3 aggregator Elbows each week and releasing it for free. This is such a cool idea. Here’s their cover of Beach House‘s “Gila” (you can listen to the original here):

Ruby Isle : Gila (Beach House cover)
So, Xiu Xiu and Fucked Up have filed a lawsuit against RJ Reynolds Tobacco for using their names, plus tons of other indie groups, in a Camel cigarettes add in Rolling Stone magazine without their permission. Add this douchiness to running Bob Dylan cover stories every three months and having no clue what the best music of 2007 was, and Rolling Stone may be more out of touch than MTV.

Lou Reed will be the keynote speaker at SXSW.

Beck‘s Odelay is getting the “Deluxe Treatment” and will be available with lots of extra goodies at the end of next month.

David Byrne interviews Thom Yorke on In Rainbows.

The Long Blondes have a new album out in April.

The Smashing Pumpkins are digitally releasing an acoustic EP called American Gothic on January 2nd.

Snowden is so hott the television show CSI Miami has used their cover of “Time Of the Season”:

If for some reason you read this in time to check it out, Snowden are DJing tonight at DSC.

A cool show I recommend checking out tomorrow night:

I’ve been spending a ridiculous amount of time listening to albums from this year i hadn’t got a chance to listen to until now to make sure I leave no rock unturned for my Top 50 albums list. I’ll try to update my “heavy rotation list” sometime over the next few days, but until then, listen to these tracks of the stuff I’ve like best and then go get the album:

Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew : Spirit If… : Gang Bang Suicide
Plants And Animals : With/Avec : Lola Who?
Yeasayer : All Hour Cymbals : Sunrise
Jesu : Conqueror : Conqueror
Cloud Cult : The Meaning Of 8 : Chemicals Collide
Illinois : What The Hell Do I Know? : What Can I Do For You
I ‘m chilling at Octane coffee shop right now because Comcast is horrible and my internet service through them basically doesn’t work, so between that and me chillaxing for the holidays, posts will be sparse. My year end lists are taking a little longer than expected because i take them very seriously and i don’t want to miss anything. I would anticipate my best EP list up around Christmas and my best LP list up right before New Years. Happy Holidays and Thanks for reading Ohmpark!

Humpday Random Tracks

Listen to the track and click the album cover to get more info:

CocoRosie: Rainbow Warrior

Illinois: Alone Again

Ruby Isle: Teenage Riot (Sonic Youth cover)

Voxtrot: Firecracker