Carl's Songs/Videos of the Week

Hope everyone had a great 4th full of fireworks, bbq and booze. All in the name of celebrating our wonderful country's birthday, of course. Apologies for the slight absence, but never fear, Carl is back. Enjoy.

1. Holy Ghost! - "I Will Come Back": More known for their remixes, Holy Ghost! is a new-ish band under the DFA (James Murphy aka LCD Soundsystem) umbrella. I like their sound - there's a pinch of Italo-disco, a dash of 80s dance, and a shitload of awesome. Their debut album is scheduled for early next year. Check out the video below too.

2. Temper Trap - "Love Lost": Ever since I heard, and subsequently became obsessed with their first single, "Sweet Disposition" I've been eagerly waiting to hear the entire album Conditions. It's still not out in the U.S. (only in Australia), but I must say, it's damn good and is hereby Carl-Approved. Light falsetto melodies and swirling guitars aplenty throughout the album. This is one of the highlights.

3. Temper Trap - "Fools": Another beautiful tune off Conditions. This one really showcases Dougy's unique vocals.

4. The Golden Filter - "Peter Bjorn & John - Lay it Down (remix)": The Golden Filter has some funky remixes, this is one of their better attempts.

5. Mogwai - "2 Rights Make 1 Wrong": The best song off their incredible Rock Action. Not a new song by any means, but it's one of the best epic instrumentals ever created. Plain and simple. Close your eyes and let it take you to Awesometown.

6. Metric - "Collect Call": Metric's new album Fantasies is a sneaky gem. Led by the baby-voiced Emily Haines, her voice weaves perfectly in and out of shimmering guitars and bouncy synths. The results are catchy as hell.

7. Metric - "Gimme Sympathy": See above.

8. Drake - "Best I Ever Had": A brief history of Drake via Pitchfork: "Relative unknown creates mixtape with a few friends and uploads it to the internet, and then, within a few months, he's maybe/possibly dating Rihanna and fielding seven-figure offers from broke major labels. Except in this case, the relative unknown in question was a star on the Canadian teeny-drama "Degrassi: The Next Generation", and the friends in question are Lil Wayne and Trey Songz and Chris Paul. Even weirder, the main overarching theme of Drake's So Far Gone seems to be the stresses and travails of fame, even if he recorded the damn thing when he wasn't famous in any meaningful way. And now the tape has made him good and famous for real." So Far Gone is the name of the mixtape and is worth checking out.

9. Drake - "Let's Call it Off (remix)": Another remix of a Peter Bjorn & John song. PB&J can't be happy that most of their songs are better as remixes than originals.

10. Miike Snow - "A Song for No One": Swedish producers step out from behind the curtain with their critically underappreciated album. . . Miike Snow.

11. Moby - "Study War": Moby's new release Wait For Me is a throwback to his Play and 18 heyday. This is good news. Save a couple songs, Hotel and Last Night were pure garbage. Though not executed as well as Play, Wait for me goes back to that "Moby Sound" - samples, minimalist beats and strings. I know the poor guy likes to think of himself as a singer, artist, performer, philosopher, techno genius, as well as a producer but unfortunately, he's really only good at producing. Let's hope he's finally realized this, because the sooner he does, the better off we'll all be.

---Carl 07.07.09

On to the videos. . .

Holy Ghost! - "I Will Come Back"



Beirut - "Concubine"


Major Lazer - "Hold The Line"


Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video #1
I'm sure a lot of you have seen these, but they're worth watching, whether it's for the 1st or 776th time.


Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video #2
And the other one. . .



Until next time, enjoy this happy lizard in a chair. . .