Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The best slightly leftfield pop gem of the year (so far) - part one


Pop Gem Checklist:
  1. Leftfield instrumentation and fresh rhythms
  2. Slightly perverse and saucy lyrics
  3. Sticks in your head like a beautiful axe
Check, check, and check: 




51 comments:

ejaydee said...

Pah!! Old news! But have you heard I'm Good I'm Gone? Not sure if I prefer the "acoustic" version with a who's who of Swedish pop (available and a must-see on youtube), or the regular studio version. Let me know

Blimpy said...

I have indeed, very clever video with the coustic version.

Lykke has been on my ipod for a while, the reason i posted is because Little Bit has been stuck in my head ALL DAY, and i had to do something to expunge it.


DIdn't work, mind you.

nilpferd said...

I think if I had this stuck in my head all day I'd do something. bad.
No, it's actually quite listenable. They are a bit self-conscious, though.
Reminds me a bit of Frente, an Aussie group from the early 90's.

Blimpy said...

i remember Frente, they always seemed to be on Mark Radcliffe, doing a session.

nilpferd said...

I wouldn't know about that, I was just across the Tasman from them at the time.. I must say though having just checked out a few Youtubes for nostalgia's sake, that their accents didn't seem so strong back then..

steenbeck said...

Hey, ejaydee, wasn't this on that website that you spoke about a while back? What was it called and why isn't there a link for it on the left? I think it started with a p.

nilpferd said...

BTW, Blimpy, I think "Spill your mind" works better than the previous prompt- which I've promptly forgotten..

ejaydee said...

Pinglewood?
The previous prompt was Wassup rockers, probably from the film by the same name by ??? Clarke. You know the dude who did Kids.

ejaydee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
treefrogdemon said...

Larry

steenbeck said...

Just added a link to pinglewood--hope that's okay, Blimpy. And would you know they're talking about Erykah badu, J Dilla, and Eddie Kendricks, who did the song (Can I) that Talib Kweli covered(as Talk to You) that I posted a while back. Small world. Very interesting. I don't know that much about Badu other than I'm Sorry Ms. Jackson, and what I saw of her in Dave Chappelle's Block Party (am I talking about that again?) I was more impressed by her presence than her music, but Pinglewood (and Ejaydee) makes the new album sound intriguing.

nilpferd said...

Whassup rockers, right. I thought someone had hacked that in, to be honest, it was around the time of that bad tempered anonymous poster..
Steenbeck, EJD and Treefrog- you lot are like a retired couple- always ending each other's sentences- makes me go all gooey, that does..;-)

ejaydee said...

Thanks TFD.
Steenbeck, this is the one that caught my ear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hCtjoq3KG4

steenbeck said...

Well if 26 is the new 76, that makes 38 the new, what? 88 (sorry nilpferd) and I don't know how old TFD is, but hopefully she's ready to retire, too, so we can sit around helping each other form complete ideas.

steenbeck said...

Liked it, Ejaydee. She has an unusual voice. Madlib produced a couple of good tracks on Eardrum, and Kweli and Madlib did a WHOLE FREE ALBUM called Liberation which was available for about a week, which of course I missed. There must be a way to get it, but I can't figure it out.

ejaydee said...

Are you familiar with torrents?

Blimpy said...

I miss teh bad tempered illiterate anonymous commenter.

ejaydee said...

I KNEW IT!!! It was you all along! It's like a Scooby-Doo episode

steenbeck said...

I've tried downloading torrent-type items, but I don't understand it and it never seems to work. I have noticed a preponderance of porn in the advertising though. I'd make an effort to figure it out if it would lead me to Liberation.

Blimpy, are you playing with photoshop filters with the black eggs and ham?

ejaydee said...

It will lead you to Liberation indeed.
Not sure what you've tried yet, but I heard that once you've downloaded the torrent file you need an application to actually download the actual file. I hear some people use Transmission and that apparently it's very good.
http://thepiratebay.org/search/madlib%20liberation/0/99/0

Blimpy said...

1. The logo rot is worsening

2. Torrents are a gift from the gods of the internet. Love 'em. I don't mind doing a how-to?

Mnemonic said...

I've had no luck with torrents either, partly because they make me nervous of acquiring viruses. A tutorial would be welcome.

steenbeck said...

Another good reason to get a Mac, mnemonic.
donds for the how-to, blimpy

Mnemonic said...

Unfortunately, the equivalent MAC to my PC would have been £1200 instead of £400 so it wasn't an option.

Anonymous said...

ha \you don't even no how 2 do a torrents -u r stupid loosers!

steenbeck said...

Who's a looser? I'm listening to Liberation right now. Thanks, Ejaydee!! Transmission seems to work really well.

ejaydee said...

Welcome to the dark side...Mwahaha

Mnemonic, my unqualified opinion is that as long as you have a proper anti-virus, and you stay away from high-profile torrents, you should be ok. Surely we have some PC torrent users here who know more about this?

Blimpy said...

I can help with Mac torrent stuff only, really. I would happily write a how-to about that.

nilpferd said...

I tried it once (torrenting) but for some reason the software refused to download anything and I got sick of it. torrenting is for loosers.
Besides, if you add the record collections of everyone posting here there'd be pretty much anything available..so who can be the first to name a track which no-one can Youtube/Deezer/Podbean? Including yourself, of course.
Bootlegs don't count. Other rules can be made up as you go along.

steenbeck said...

I would love to have this, or anything from it.
http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Dog-Way-Samurai-RZA/dp/B00004VT9G/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1204161737&sr=8-3

There are some tracks on youTube, I have to admit, and I suppose I could use goneforeign's wiretap method. I've never thought about using it on a youTube track. But I'd love to download the album. And I'd buy it, but not for $50.

nilpferd said...

Well, that didn't take long.. Steenbeck, you can also buy it for about half the price at Amazon sellers.. I get most of my cds this way and they are normally new..

glasshalfempty said...

I liked the track, Blimpy, and fortunately it hasn't given me your ear worm. New Lykke Li album out 3rd March...

steenbeck said...

Found it here...
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3509830/RZA_Discography_ghost_dog_bobby_digital_bullet_cure_shqlame
along with a lot of RZA's other stuff.

nilpferd said...

so my challenge still stands..

ejaydee said...

Not sure where to stick this, but a blog is posting Lee Hazlewood's Cowboy In Sweden in full (it's out of print apparently). I don't know him that well, but it was well worth the listen.
http://www.joedevivre.com/blog/?p=138

ejaydee said...

Well, nilpferd, until I posted them on youtube, most of the songs I put up there wouldn't be available. I guess you could say they are now, but the reason I put them there is because I couldn't find them anywhere else.

nilpferd said...

That's what I mean, my challenge was, can anyone name a track they'd like to hear which none of us can supply out of their own collection. I suspect the 30 odd Overspill members can provide a huge amount of music.

nilpferd said...

Actually challenge is the wrong word. It was more a suggestion that we post requests for things we'd like to hear but can't access online.

ejaydee said...

Oh I get it now. Well I had looked for Elvis Costello's I Want You since the scary songs blog, and couldn't find it anywhere, until a couple of weeks ago on Songerize. Unless anybody has that song, that would have been valid. Albeit a couple of weeks ago.

steenbeck said...

The RZA I found was a torrent--does that count, Nilpferd? One of the RZA songs has some rapping in French, Ejaydee, by Cilvaringz, although I think he's actually Moroccan. I like the sound of it, though.

nilpferd said...

Hmmm.. (retires to consider rule book. Returns. Sharp intake of breath)
weeeellll.. if you can actually hear the track you were looking for in its entirety, I think that counts. How do you actually listen to torrents, anyway? I tried downloading a few but my computer just sits there like an obedient dog, panting and looking willing, but doing nothing.

ejaydee said...

Nilpferd, some people say that some people need a torrent manager. See, you open that torrent with the torrent manager, and then the download of the file would actually start, from what I hear.

ejaydee said...

Sorry it's apparently called a torrent client, not a torrent manager.
http://versiontracker.com/php/qs.php?mode=basic&action=search&str=torrent+client&srchArea=windows&submit=Go

steenbeck said...

Nilpferd, did you download Transmission? You drag the torrent into that and then it starts downloading. Not sure if it works on PCs.

nilpferd said...

I had something similar, but can't remember what it was called. It was a program which was supposed to manage the torrent files, but it didn't work for me. I then disinstalled whatever torrent software I had in a fit of pique.
I'll try Transmission. Thanks for the tips.

Blimpy said...

There's 2 parts to bit torrent downloading.

You need:

a. The program that actually downloads all the small parts (bits) from everyone else who's running the same program who has the file you want

b. The tiny data file that tells your torrent program (see part a) what to look for.

In action, this happens:

1. I think "Oh,I would like 'Oracular Spectacular' by MGMT but the CD isn't out yet, plus I can't afford it this month.

2. I go to a torrent site like, say, torrentspy.com or piratebay

3. I search "MGMT" in their search window

4. I download the small torrent file

5. I open up my downloading program (in this case Azureus - which is a free program and safe too )

6. I drag and drop the torrent file into Azureus

7. I wait a wee while, whilst the program finds everyone else online with the album I want. This won't happen immediately - patience is neccessary here sometimes, grasshopper.

8. Azureus starts downloading the mp3s

9. MGMT are hot property right now, so about 30 folk I'm connected to have the record.

10. The download takes about 15 mins to 60 mins dependent on time of day / who's online etc

11. I listen to the mp3s and dance around the room, then start my torrent download of Seinfeld season 9...

nilpferd said...

Thanks for the step by step, Blimpy. Maybe my chosen torrent files were simply no longer available, it was some pretty obscure/old stuff. Probably the word "patience" is the key one here..

Blimpy said...

hey nilp - that's also happened to me, when I've gone for really obscure stuff, like no one online has it, then all of a sudden one day the torrent picks up and you get it!

another good thing the torrent website have, usually, is a note of the current number of others online who are sharing the file - - - so if it;s zero, don't bother.!!

nilpferd said...

So you just leave it sitting there, and one day if you're lucky it picks up something? I guess that's why it's free, then...;-)

Blimpy said...

Just like an ugly pal at the indie disco. . .

treefrogdemon said...

To go back a bit, I'll be 59 next week, but I can't retire yet because, since I spent many years at home looking after small children, my pension isn't worth a damn.