WHAT? OKAY! Lil’ Jon mixtapes. See for yourself if they’re your thing. Lil’ John collaborated with DJ Spider to make mixtapes Rockbox Vol. 1 and Rockbox Vol. 2. Volume 1 features rock and Volume 2 features nothin’ but that New Wave shit, baby. So, does this mean Lil’ Jon is attempting to follow non-mainstream trends? It’s kind of hard for Lil’ Jon to break out of the mainstream reputaiton he has, but we’re definitely feeling the Nu Wave mixtape more than the rock. Sorry rock fans.

Overall, we find Lil’ Jon laughable, but his fame and ability to create a marketable image and form of music are undeniable. After all, he’s the “King of Krunk.” Ya heard?

“Rockbox Vol 1.:”

Rockbox Vol. 2.:”

Download.

1. “Soul Meets Body.” Okay, so this was the second track of Death Cab For Cutie’s (DCFC) Plans record. Plans was the first truly commercial DCFC release, as it was on the major label Atlantic Records. To top it off, “Soul Meets Body,” is probably one of the most pop-sounding rock tracks on the entire album: we can’t deny the fact that we heard it being played at The Gap; but hey, we still appreciate its sound aesthetic very much. The line “‘So brown eyes I’ll hold you near because you’re the only line I want to hear,” speaks against all the triteness (among other adjectives) of people adoring people with lighter hair and eyes. Excellent.

2. “What Sarah Said.” This track loses to “Soul Meets Body,” because it’s just not something that you’re always in the mood for. Depressed and low, yet profound and interesting, tracks are reserved for certain moods. Whereas, tracks like “Soul Meets Body,” are not reserved for any time per se.

3. “Title and Registration.” Love the commentary about the glove compartment never holding gloves. This begs the question though, what should the glove compartment or glove box be called? The storage compartment? The storage box? The storage box that is on the front passenger side of the vehicle? It is funny how things in general can just stick even when they are no longer valid. So, I suppose DCFC is just commenting on the fact that people are creatures of habit. That’s our analysis anyway. Sure, you could take things at face value, but why do that when you could over-analyze?

4. “Styrofoam Plates.” Everyone knows that the lyrics of DCFC are pretty exact when it comes to achieving their purpose. Whatever you consider the purpose of lyrics to be, we believe that Death Cab lyrics are tangible to everyone, even for non-fans. This song was awesome until we learned that it’s not true that Gibbard carries a lot of hatred towards his father from a childhood of severe physical abuse, but rather merely a friend of Gibbard’s had a similar situation and the friend’s story gave rise to the song and not actually Gibbard’s own life experiences. The song is still effective regardless though, just slightly less enjoyable from the intellectual standpoint. Everyone’s life history has upsetting, emotional or even traumatic experiences caused by their family or lack thereof.

5. “Tiny Vessels.” The harsh nature of this song is interesting. Not only that, the song contains an analysis of how depressing it can be to fall out of love with someone. Again, though, if you’re happily in love. with no end to your relationship in sight, this song isn’t going to have the same effect on you.

6. “Passenger Seat.” How beautiful. Chris Walla has really outdone himself with the piano melody and overall instrumentals here. Further, Gibbard adds a relaxed and peaceful mood to this song.

7.“Technicolor Girls.” First-off, what is Technicolor? Oh, you probably at least have some idea, or a less than vague notion, but do you really know what the exact meaning is? Wikipedia to the rescue:

Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (a subsidiary of Technicolor, Inc.), now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain’s Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952. Technicolor became known and celebrated for its hyper-realistic, saturated levels of color, and was used commonly for filming musicals (such as The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain), costume pictures (such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Joan of Arc), and animated films (such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia).

The Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1915 by Herbert Kalmus, Daniel Frost Comstock, and W. Burton Wescott.

And there you have it. So, DCFC likes old-school stuff. We really can’t stand most things out of the 50′s, although with age and the move to Southern California, the fascination with things from the Technicolor period are a lot more prevalent. This, in turn, makes all things that could have been viewed in Technicolor somewhat more palatable.

8. “Wait.” This reminds us of smoking cigarettes. At least, when we used to smoke. Smoking is bad, okay? But when we used to smoke and spend more time socializing than working–the opposite of now–this song was pretty appealing. Isn’t being able to relate to lyrics what it’s all about?

9. “Title Track.” Another track about the degradation of relationships and life itself. At 1:39 in the album version, the transition is fairly notable. Regret in any relationship is not a pleasant emotion. Of course, I regret things that I really enjoy all the time. Yes, I live for regret and all of its lovely tidings.

10. “A Movie Script Ending.” Dirty words, asterisks in for the vowels. The way this song flows exercises restraint while simultaneously building up to higher-energy moments. We’ve listened to this track so many times that we’re kind of tired of it by now.

But here is a bonus track that we could not figure out where to insert into the top 10 at this time. Our selection of it is inspired by the work of other artists on our site!

“This Charming Man:”

So if you know anything about Stones Throw Records, you know about Madlib and his alter-artist-ego Quasimoto aka Lord Quas. You’ll be happy to know that come February 19th you’ll be able to buy your very own Quasimoto figure in a box. The Quasimoto figure is 8-inches tall, available in equal quantities of yellow and blue, each with a brick and “cigarette.”

The hip-hop artist Quasimoto (aka Lord Quas) was created by Madlib. He has released two albums, The Unseen and The Further Adventures of Lord Quas, a collection of singles, and guest appearances on albums by Madvillain and Jaylib. The Quasimoto figure is based on the character drawn by Jeff Jank.

Kid Robot and Stones Throw released a Madvillain figure in January 2007, which sold out in a matter of hours. A limited number of the Quasimoto figure are available via pre-sale at Stones Throw’s online store, and will be sold at Kid Robot stores and the locations listed below.

You can pre-order one now here.

Bonus (Lord Quas Dunks):

Birgisson:

Not all of the Sigur Ros tracks are devoid of language, but loads of the songs that we like feature this “gibberish” they have created, or what they have dubbed Vonlenska. If you’re too lazy to follow the Wikipedia link, Vonlenska is defined there as,

“a term used to describe the gibberish sung by the band, in particular Birgisson. It is also commonly known by the English translation of its name, Hopelandic. It takes its name from “Von”, a song on Sigur Rós’s debut album Von where it was first used. Vonlenska is not an actual language people speak in, as it lacks a consistent grammar structure, word meaning, or even distinct words. Instead, it consists of emotive syllables and phonemes; the band’s website describes it as “a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music”. Most of the syllable strings sung by Birgisson are repeated many times throughout each song, and in the case of ( ), throughout the whole album.”

This begs the question though, how much of Sigur Ros’ music is improvised? If you’re singing in Vonlenska, do you write it down first? We’re guessing it’s a combination of the two, but either way, it really works well for the band and their success.

Time for some selected tracks for your listening enjoyment.

“Njosnavelin:”

“Intro” (from Agaetis Byrjun):

“Svefn-g-englar:”

“Starálfur”

“Vaka:”

Bloc Party claim that their variation of spiky guitar rock draws on influences such as The Cure, The Jam, Les Savy Fav, Blur, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Smiths, Pixies, Manic Street Preachers and Joy Division.[citation needed] Particular parallels were made between Bloc Party and Gang of Four upon their arrival on the music scene, yet the band were “mildly infuriated” at such references, claiming they had never “particularly liked” Gang of Four. To achieve their unique guitar style, numerous delay effects pedals are implemented.

During the recording of the second album, the band suggested it would contain “some truly R’n'B styled beats, a song where [Tong] and [Moakes] play drums simultaneously [with] both eggshell-thin fragility and trouser-flapping hugeness”, as opposed to their typical indie rock sound. The style has been compared to and inspired by such bands as Radiohead, U2, Depeche Mode and Björk. Some of the most noticeable changes are the songs have come more layered and less raw. With the release of “Flux”, Bloc Party’s style became even more diverse with the inclusion of electronic music. For their third album, Matt Tong said, “I think our new stuff is going to be a lot less textured than the last record. I think the third studio incarnation of Bloc is going to be a bit like the rawer earlier Bloc, but with experience.” Working with original producer Paul Epworth again, “Mercury” saw Bloc Party distance themselves even further from the traditional guitar band set-up, experimenting with dark electronic sounds and a brass section.

It was hard to pick a top three from this record, so I picked a top five. It’s really cool how Bloc Party has added some intentional glitches into their tracks now. That’s just an opinion though.

“Signs:”

“Zephyrus:”

“Better Than Heaven:”

“Letter To My Son:”

“Your Visits Are Getting Shorter:”

Styrofoam is Arne Van Petegem, a Belgian one-man glitch electronic music project (indietronic) on the independent record label Morr Music. The track in focus, “Couches In Alleys (Feat. Ben Gibbard), is like down-tempo lap-pop. Since I keep using the genre label, I’ll give some background: lap-pop is basically pop music with electronic influence that was mostly produced with only laptops. Of course, it certainly takes a vocalist to add to the mood of these songs, but there’s nothing “pop” about the lyrics in lap-pop songs, really. You could argue that the lyrics or music appeal to popular culture, but there tends to be a clever twist in the lyrics that brings these tracks above your run of the mill Britney Spears tune. Don’t get me wrong, though, the production / instrumental end of Britney’s releases is really tight! Seriously. At any rate, I really like what Styrofoam is doing with the instrumentals here. The chopped break swooshes and clicks are right up my alley. Definitely not overlooking the melodic synthesizer work either.

On the album, “Nothing’s Lost,” Styrofoam worked together with artists Valerie Trebeljahr (Lali Puna), Andrew Kenny (The American Analog Set), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service), Bent Van Looy (Das Pop), Markus Acher (The Notwist, Lali Puna), Miki Yoshimura (Munk) and Alias. I can’t believe it took me four years to discover this track! I also can’t believe Ben Gibbard hasn’t collaborated on more songs of this style.

But enough about all of that. Let’s get to the song that has been elected our song of the month. And, a random video clip that was created by an arbitrary YouTube fan that decided the song moved her enough that she simply had to do something about it!

Now, listen to the hit.

Discography

Albums

2000: The Point Misser Morr Music
2000: A Short Album About Murder
2003: I’m What’s There To Show That Something’s Missing
2004: Nothing’s Lost
2006: The Same Channel [Joint album with Fat Jon]
2008: A Thousand Words Nettwerk

EP’s & Singles

2002: RR20 Rocket Racer
2002: Styrofoam/Dntel Split [7" Split]
2002: To Simply Lie Here And Breathe [7"] Morr Music
2003: A Heart Without A Mind [EP]
2005: Live
2008: Bright Red Helmet Nettwerk

Remixes

2001: múm, Please Sing My Spring Reverb, Please Smile My Noise Bleed
2002: Tristeza, Casio, Mixed Signals
Giardini di Mirò, A New Start, The Academic Rise of Falling Drifters
The American Analog Set, The Postman, We’re Computerizing And We Just Don’t Need You Anymore, Updates EP
2003: Zorn Marianengraben Marianengraben
2004: The Go, Find What I Want, Over The Edge
2005: The Postal Service, Nothing Better, We Will Become Silhouettes
The American Analog Set, Cool Kids Keep, Set Free (Japanese edition)
Jimmy Eat World, Drugs Or Me, Stay on My Side Tonight [EP]
The Free Design (with Sarah Shannon), I Found Love, The Now Sound Redesigned
Plastic Operator, Folder, Folder EP
2006: Najwa Nimri, Capable, Capable
Five Deez, Let The People Know, Let The People Know
The Submarines, Brighter Discontent, Remixes EP
Leigh Nash, All Along The Wall, Remixed 2 EP
2007: at the close of every day, Rain or Shine, Leaves You Puzzled

This track is how I first heard of Owl City, from his “Of June” record, and it’s still one of my favorites:

Here are a couple more Owl City tracks I enjoy, both from his “Maybe I’m Dreaming” release. As for the remainder of Young’s music, I think I find it a bit juvenile for my tastes, but that is also shown in quick observations made about the young age group of the majority of his Myspace fan-base.

“Hello Seattle:”

Young has trouble sleeping, referencing sleeping pills in some of his lyrics. Further, the artist started producing his tracks at home in his bedroom. Quite impressive, wouldn’t you say?

Discography

Of June (August 29, 2007)
Maybe I’m Dreaming (March 18, 2008)

As for his production style, there are lots of catchy synthy melodies and beats. He uses an autotuner DSP plug-in on his voice to give it that robotic sound, which is possibly overused seeing as it is in all of his tracks; however, it works really well in a few of them and his tracks tend to have a sort of relaxed, carefree and dreamy feel to them. However, it is known among experienced producers that using autotuning on every single vocal you record could show an inability to sing in proper pitch, the autotuner being used as a crutch to correct incorrect notes and mistakes in vocals. However, with over 13,000,000 song plays on Myspace, Owl City is certainly doing enough right to get the job done and make music that people enjoy. Today alone Owl City beat out Timbaland with Myspace plays: 131,000+ to 65,000+.

“On The Wing”

“West Coast Friendship”

“The Saltwater Room:”

So, let’s get straight into an example of Lil’ Wayne’s fashion. Take his track “Pump That Bass (Dirty),” from Ear 2 Da Street Vol. 184 Here’s a video and a section of the lyrics we’re focusing on:

Yea
Eh, what you know about jeans from Japan
Handmade with the brand on the seam of the pants
And the steam in the seam of the pants soft so
And the steam gotta be more so
Don’t go no where got plenty more here and there
The shoes I wear you don’t own a pair
Get it clear like a mirror
That’s why your girlfriend’s scared
Just been elected the presidents here
Cheer, Cheers
Tangerine tequila no beers
Ye, I like this here
With Ciera on the track that’s music to my ears
That’s when I go to the store and ask for a Philly
If they don’t have a Philly
I ask for a Swisher
If they don’t have a Swisher
I ask for
That’s when I ask for a
That’s when I ask for a Dutchee
(That’s when) I ask for a Dutchee
They gotta have a Dutchee